The Goindwal Sahib Thermal Power Plant is a 540 megawatt coal-fired power plant located in Punjab, India. It is owned and operated by GVK Power. The plant originally comprised two 270 megawatt generating units (Units 1 and 2) which began operations in 2016 after long delays in securing a stable coal supply. GVK had planned to expand the plant to 1320 additional megawatts by building two more 660 megawatt units (Units 3 and 4), but these expansion plans are currently on hold. Securing a reliable coal supply from allocated mines in Jharkhand has been an ongoing challenge for the plant since its inception.

1. Goindwal Sahib Thermal Power Plant
INTRODUCTION:
On its website in 2011, GVK stated that the project was 600-megawatt while a February 2011
investor presentation described the project as a 540 megawatt plant comprising two 270
generating units (units 1 and 2). The Central Electricity Authority describes it as a 540 MW
project.
In its 2010-2011 annual report GVK stated that "during February 2011 your Company has
executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Punjab State Power Corporation
Limited for implementation of 1320 MW Power Project (Phase-II), in the State of Punjab. For
this purpose GVK Power (Khadur Sahib) Private Limited, a SPV has been incorporated as a
step down subsidiary through GVK Energy Limited to implement the Coal based thermal power
project with super-critical technology, proposed to be developed in the additional land at the
existing Goindwal Sahib site in Tarn Taran District, Punjab."
GVK has lobbied for the the Punjab government to approve the expansion of the project by an
additional 1,320 megawatts. The company received a terms of reference toward this expansion
(units 3 and 4) in 2011, and completed an environmental impact assessment for the units in
2013.
In April 2014 it was reported that GVK had approached India's NTPC to buy the Goindwal
power station, as GVK has not been able to commission its newly constructed 2 x 270 MW units
because it could not arrange coal from the two coal blocks allocated to it. The first unit was
expected to be commissioned in August 2014.
In May 2014 GVK said it will start power generation at its 540 MW Goindwal Sahib plant as
soon as the station received a coal linkage, and had no plans to sell the facility to NTPC.
In July 2014 the Punjab government said the Centre had agreed to grant coal to the 540 MW
plant, enabling GVK to commence energy production.
In August 2015 GVK Chairman GVK Reddy said the coal mine allocation to the Goindwal Sahib
project had been cancelled. The company still planned to put the plant into operation, but
commissioning is subject to allocation of coal.

2. Unit 1 was commissioned in February 2016 and unit 2 in March 2016 A Swiss company, IMR
Metallurgical Resources, has agreed to supply coal from South Africa to the plant. The company
also has been allotted 12 lakh tonnes of unused coal by Coal India Limited.
Coal supply
GVK states on its website that coal for the project will be sourced from "the company’s own coal
mines at Tokisud and Seregarha, Jharkhand." GVK has established another subsidiary, GVK
Coal (Tokisud) Company Private Limited, to develop the Tokisud coal mine in Hazaribagh
district in Jharkhand.
On its website GVK states this plant will be supplied with coal from the "Tokisud and Sereghara
mine blocks have mine-able reserves of 52 million tonnes and 100 million tonnes respectively."
The company states that the "Tokisud Open Cast mining block, located 50 kms north-west of
Ranchi City in the State of Jharkhand, is being developed into a captive coal mine.” Elsewhere
on its website the company states that GVK Power (Goindwal Sahib) Limited is "developing a
600 MW coal based Thermal Power Plant at Goindwal Sahib, in Punjab. The Company has
initialed the draft Power Purchase Agreement with Punjab State Electricity Board ("PSEB") in
December 2006." GVK has stated that the power purchase agreement runs for 25 years.
In a February 2011 investor presentation GVK states that it has entered into a "Coal
Transportation Agreement" with Indian Railways to transport coal to the plant. GVK stated that 2
million tonnes of coal a year would be supplied from the Tokisud coal mine and 1 million tonnes
a year from the Seregarha coal mine.
The coal mine allocation was cancelled by the Supreme Court in 2014.
Project Details
Sponsor: GVK
Location: Goindwal Sahib village, Khadur Sahib taluk, Taran Taran district, Punjab
Coordinates: 31.3841396, 75.1465032 (exact)
Status:
 Units 1 & 2: Operating
 Units 3 & 4: Pre-permit development

3. Capacity:
 Unit 1: 270 MW
 Unit 2: 270 MW
 Unit 3: 660 MW
 Unit 4: 660 MW
Type:
Projected in service: 2016 (Units 1-2)
Coal Type:
Coal Source:
Estimated annual CO2:
Source of financing:
Permits and applications:
 Units 1 & 2: Environmental Clearance, India MoEF, May 9, 2008; Environmental Clearance
Amendment and Extension, India MoEF, February 19, 2014
 Units 3 & 4: Terms of Reference, India MoEF, July 26, 2011; Environmental Impact
Assessment, June, 2013
Working procedure
First Coal rake arrives at Goindwal Sahib Thermal Power
Plant
Goindwal SahibTPPcrosseda significantmilestonewiththe arrival of the firstCoal rake at the project
site on18 October2015. The projectteamperformedthe PoojaArchana/Ardaas to markthis special
occasion.The unloadingandstackingof coal wascarriedout througha processwhichinvolvedweighing
of coal rake throughin-motionweighbridge,tipplingof coal,transferringtocoal stockyardthrough
conveyorandfinallystackingof coal throughcoal stacker machine.Thisimportantdevelopmentbrings
us anotherstepclosertothe operationsof the plant.

4. Transferring of coal at coal stockyard through conveyor system
Wagon unloading coal at wagon tippler

5. Thermal Power Plants:
Thermal power plants use water as working fluid. Nuclear and coal based power plants fall
under this category. The way energy from fuel gets transformed into electricity forms the
working of a power plant. In a thermal power plant a steam turbine is rotated with help of
high pressure and high temperature steam and this rotation is transferred to a generator to
produce electricity.
Fig.1 Power is produced in thermal power plants by rotating steam turbine
Energy absorption from steam
When turbine blades get rotated by high pressure high temperature steam, the steam loses its
energy. This in turn will result in a low pressure and low temperature steam at the outlet of
the turbine. Here steam is expanded till saturation point is reached. Since there is no heat
addition or removal from the steam, ideally entropy of the steam remains same. This change
is depicted in the following p-v and T-s diagrams. If we can bring this low pressure, low
temperature steam back to its original state, then we can produce electricity continuously.

6. Fig.2 Pressure and temperature drop of steam when turbine absorbs energy from it
Use of Condenser:
Compressing a fluid which is in gaseous state requires a huge amount of energy, so before
compressing the fluid it should be converted into liquid state. A condenser is used for this
purpose, which rejects heat to the surrounding and converts steam into liquid. Ideally there
will not be any pressure change during this heat rejection process, since the fluid is free to
expand in a condenser. Changes in fluid are shown in the p-v and T-s diagram below.
Fig.3 Use of condenser in order to transform vapor into liquid state
Pump
At exit of the condenser fluid is in liquid state, so we can use a pump to raise the pressure.
During this process the volume and temperature (2-3 deg.C rise)of fluid hardly changes, since
it is in liquid state. Now the fluid has regained its original pressure.

7. Fig.4 Compressor pumps the fluid to its original pressure
Heat Addition in Boiler & Rankine Cycle
Here external heat is added to the fluid in order to bring fluid back to its original
temperature. This heat is added through a heat exchanger called a boiler. Here the pressure
of the fluid remains the same, since it is free to expand in heat exchanger tubes.
Temperature rises and liquid gets transformed to vapor and regains its original temperature.
This completes the thermodynamic cycle of a thermal power plant, called Rankine Cycle. This
cycle can be repeated and continuous power production is possible.
Fig.5 Heat addition at boiler brings the fluid to its original temperature

8. Condenser Heat Rejection - Cooling Tower
In order to reject heat from the condenser a colder liquid should make contact with it. In a
thermal power plant continuous supply of cold liquid is produced with the help of a cooling
tower. Cold fluid from the cooling tower absorbs heat from a condenser and gets heated, this
heat is rejected to the atmosphere via natural convection with the help of a cooling tower.
Boiler furnace for Heat Addition
Heat is added to the boiler with help of a boiler furnace. Here fuel reacts with air and
produces heat. In a thermal power plant, the fuel can be either coal or nuclear. When coal is
used as a fuel it produces a lot of pollutants which have to be removed before ejecting to the
surroundings. This is done using a series of steps, the most important of them is an electro
static precipitator (ESP) which removes ash particles from the exhaust. Now much cleaner
exhaust is ejected into the atmosphere via a stack
Fig.6 Main accessories of Rankine cycle - Cooling tower, Boiler furnace, ESP & Chimney
Optimizing a Thermal plant performance
There are various flow parameters which have to be fine-tuned in order to get optimum
performance from a thermal power plant.Lowering the condenser temperature or raising the

9. average boiler temperature will result in a high efficiency power plant cycle according to the
2nd law of thermodynamics (Carnot efficiency),most of the performance improving
technologies are working on this idea. Some latest trends are listed below.
1. Expanding Turbine After Saturation
Expanding the steam in the turbine even after reaching the saturation point may be a dangerous affair.
As the steam goes below saturation, wetness of the steam increases. These condensed water droplets
collide with the turbine blades rotating at a high speed, thus it can cause extreme tip erosion to the
blades. Turbine blade tip erosion is shown in figure below. But as you expand more you will be able
to absorb more energy from the steam, thus increasing power plant efficiency. Up to 15% wetness
level is considered to be safe for steam turbine operation. So most of the steam turbine will expand up
to this point in order to extract maximum energy from the fluid. This is shown in figure below.
Fig.7 Expanding turbine below saturation point in order to gain maximum power from steam
1. Raising average boiler temperature
If you can increase the average heat addition temperature of the boiler, that will result in a power
plant with higher efficiency. One way to do this is to increase the compressor pressure. This will shift
the saturation point of the fluid to a higher level, thus providing higher average temperature of heat
addition. This is shown in the figure below. The blue line represents change in the cycle after raising
the compressor pressure.

10. Fig.8 Raising compressor pressure in order achieve higher average boiler temperature