By IANS,
Kalpakkam : The Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) is confident of improving its plant load factor (PLF) soon, said a top official.
Interacting with reporters here on the occasion of the silver jubilee of unit I of Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS), NPCIL technical director S.A. Bhardwaj said: “Within next 10 days there will be improvement in fuel supplies which in turn would better the PLF.”
According to him, there has been a demand-supply mis-match of fuel, which brought down the plant performance.
“During the last four years, the government has been struggling to open new mines. Two new mines have been opened which would ease the supply of uranium for our reactors,” he added.
NPCIL’s reactors have now a PLF of around 60 percent.
For instance, the two units in MAPS, with a rated capacity of 220 MW each, together generate around 250 MW.
“In three months time, we expect all our power plants to touch a PLF of 70 percent,” Bhardwaj said.
NPCIL is also holding talks with global nuclear power plant makers like Areva, Westinghouse and others for sourcing light water reactors.
“In the market, the light water reactors are available in capacities between 1,000-1,400 MW,” he said.