ABSTRACT
In practice, however, power station siting will depend upon many factors-technical, economical, and environmental. As it is considerably cheaper to transport bulk electric energy over extra high-voltage transmission lines than to transport equivalent quantities of coal over rail road, the recent trends in India (as well as abroad) is to build super (large) thermal power stations near coal mines. Bulk power can be transmitted to fairly long distances over transmission lines of 400/765 kV and above. However, the country’s coal resources are located mainly in the eastern belt and some coal-red stations will continue to be sited in distant western and southern regions. As nuclear stations are not constrained by the problems of fuel transport and air pollution, a greater exibility exists in their siting, so that these stations are located close to load centers while avoiding high-density pollution areas to reduce the risks, however remote, of radioactivity leakage. In India, as of now, about 75% of electric power used is generated in thermal plants (including nuclear), 23% from mostly hydro stations, and 2% come from renewable and others. Coal is the fuel for most of the steam plants; the rest depends upon oil/natural gas and nuclear fuels.
