NTPC ropes in GE Gas Power to reduce carbon emissions at plants

State-owned NTPC has roped in GE Gas Power to help it reduce carbon emissions at its 645 MW Kawas gas power plant in Gujarat. Both companies have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard.

"MoU is to demonstrate the feasibility for hydrogen (H2) co-firing blended with natural gas in GE's 9E gas turbines installed at NTPC's Kawas combined-cycle gas power plant in Gujarat...and further implementation at scale across NTPC's installed units in India," GE Gas Power said in a statement.

NTPC's MW Kawas gas power plant is powered by four GE 9E gas turbines operating in a combined-cycle mode and has an installed capacity of 645 megawatt.

Thereafter, a pilot project for 5 per cent co-firing of hydrogen may be implemented at the Kawas gas power plant in a safe environment based on the feasibility report. NTPC will provide H2 required for the project, the statement said.

Deepesh Nanda, CEO of GE Gas Power South Asia, said Hydrogen has a significant potential to play, a complementary role along with other low-to-zero carbon fuels in generating electricity at scale. "This MoU is among the steps we are taking in the direction to meet the objectives under the National Hydrogen Mission.

"As our collaboration with GE grows deeper, we are more focused to use advanced technology and leverage our gas power assets with a higher percentage of zero-carbon fuels such as H2, as the availability of the fuel becomes viable," Ujjwal Kanti Bhattacharya, Director (Projects) of NTPC Ltd, said.