Central Electricity Authority (Flexible operation of thermal power plants) Draft Regulations, 2022

The Central Electricity Authority on 7th July 2022, has notified the draft Central Electricity Authority (Flexible operation of thermal power plants) Regulations, 2022. The Draft regulation shall apply to all coal and lignite based thermal power plants and load despatch centers. The Thermal Power Plants shall be suitably designed for full range of ambient and other environmental conditions prevailing at site. The various parts or components or assemblies of equipment and systems shall be of proven materials with established physical and chemical properties appropriate to the service as intended. All Thermal Power Plants (TPP) shall be capable of providing the required output as per the schedule for generation finalized by appropriate Load Despatch Centres. Based on the availability of must run stations, plants or units shall follow the variable load requirements. The appropriate Load Despatch Centers shall schedule all coal based thermal power plants, upto the MPL of 55%, to support the operation of must run stations. The minimum rate of loading or unloading for coal based thermal power plants shall be 3% per minute above the Minimum Power Levels (MPL), Provided that for supercritical and ultra-super-critical units, minimum rate of loading or unloading shall be 5% per minute above the MPL.