City generates 5,000 tonnes of garbage daily

HYDERABAD: Who would have thought garbage will come in handy to generate 100 MW power. Well, a long-pending project of GHMC of generating power from garbage is going to prove just this. The project is all set to take off with power plants coming up at Jawaharnagar, Old City, LB Nagar and Bibinagar and GHMC along with RDF Power Projects Ltd successfully conducting a test run at the Bibinagar plant. A total of 100 MW will be produced by these four plants.

Additional commissioner, GHMC, Musharraf Faruqui confirmed this to TOI. He said GHMC and RDF conducted the test run recently and were able to connect the power generated to the grid on a one-time basis. “We are shifting garbage from a few transfer stations to the Bibinagar plant and awaiting two approvals — one from TSTransco to connect it to the electrical grid permanently and the other from the Telangana State Pollution Control Board,” he said.

“To prevent pollution, the plants are equipped with a flue gas cleaning system. Green power is a major step to achieve Swacch Hyderabad,” an official said. PCB had raised objections over the use of cooling water instead of air cooling system for the power plants. “They wanted to know if water drawn from Musi river for the power plants will result in water loss. We will furnish a reply in the next 15 days,” Musharraf said.

Currently, integrated garbage is being used to produce power. “The calorific value will be less and energy per kg of garbage produced will be less in the unsegregated garbage due to the presence of stones and cement blocks,” he said. The city generates about 5,000 tonnes of garbage every day and the civic body is planning to convert the garbage pile into energy.

“Initially, the 11MW capacity Bibinagar plant will generate 6 MW. This will be the first waste to energy plant in Telangana after getting synchronisation clearance from TSSPDCL and Transco and a consent for operation from the PCB. We will soon upgrade it,” said Musharraf. GHMC is planning to complete the second phase of the plant by December.

