Barauni Thermal Power Station

Barauni Thermal Power Station is an existing 470 megawatt coal-fired power station earlier owned by Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB). The power station is located at Barauni in Begusarai district, Bihar, India. Barauni thermal power station in Bihar came into existence in association with the Russian collaboration and came into operation in the year 1962. Bihar Government was mulling over the idea to hand over Barauni Thermal Power Station to NTPC Limited. On 17 April 2018, Bihar state cabinet , headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar, gave its nod to handing over of Barauni Thermal Power Station to National Thermal Power Corporation. On 15 May 2018, Bihar Government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to hand over the thermal plant to National Thermal Power Corporation for a 33- years lease. East Central Railway will provide uninterrupted supply of coal to thermal power station. NTPC completed the acquisition of 720 MW Barauni thermal power plant with effect from 15 December 2018. The units of Barauni power station will be progressively put under commercial operation.
History.
Unit No. 1, 2 & 3 of 15MW units at the plant, which were commissioned in the early to mid-1960s have been decommissioned. Barauni Thermal power station was set up in 86.85 acres, ash yard was set up in 340 acres and Residential colony was set up in 139.25 acres.
Unit No. 4 & 5 of 50 MW each, which are Polish made, were shut down in 1995 and 1996 "due to pollution problem." BSEB states that it proposed recommissioning the units but the Central Electricity Authority "declared revival/R&M of these units not Techno-economically viable." Thus these units stand retired.
Unit No. 6 which was supplied by BHEL was renovated & modernized.
Unit No. 7 which too was supplied by Bharat Heavy Electricals was also renovated. Commercial generation of 110 MW electricity started from Unit 7 on 4 November 2016. The unit started generation after NTPC takeover from 23.05.2019. The tariff of Barauni Thermal power station will be determined by CERC.
Commercial generation of 250 MW electricity started from Unit 8 in January 2018.
Unit 9 is in advanced stages of construction as of January 2018.