Industrial Automation Magazine India

NGEL, Chidambaranar Port to collaborate to develop green hydrogen hub

Published on : Monday 11-09-2023

The MoU envisages collaboration between NGEL and VOCPA to develop a green hydrogen hub for the production of green hydrogen and its derivatives.

New Delhi, September 08, 2023: NTPC Green Energy Limited (NGEL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTPC Limited, has signed an MoU with V O Chidambaranar Port Authority (VOCPA) on 8th Sept 2023 for the development of a Green Hydrogen Hub at VOCPA, Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.

The MoU was signed by Shri V V Sivakumar, GM (NGEL), and Shri V Suresh Babu, CME (VOCPA) in the presence of Shri Bimal Kumar Jha, Dy Chairman and Chairman (I/c) (VOCPA) and other senior officials.

The MoU envisages collaboration between NGEL and VOCPA to develop a Green Hydrogen Hub for the production of Green Hydrogen and its derivatives, such as Green Ammonia and Green Methanol, on the land provided by VOCPA for export and domestic usage.

This comes in the backdrop of NTPC's Green Hydrogen initiatives and the announcement by Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Hon'ble Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways for the development of V.O.C port, Paradip port (Odisha) and Deendayal port (Gujarat) as Hydrogen Hubs.

NTPC is India's largest Power Utility with the core business of power generation having a total installed capacity of 73+ GW. As part of increasing its RE portfolio, a wholly-owned subsidiary  NGEL has been formed to take up Renewable Energy Parks and Projects including businesses in the area of Green Hydrogen, Energy Storage Technologies, and Round-the-Clock RE Power.

NTPC Group has a plan of 60 GW of RE capacity by the year 2032 and is currently working on a pipeline of 20+ GW, out of which over 3 GW is operational capacity.

VOCPA is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MOPSW), GoI. It has been identified by MOPSW to be developed as a Green Hydrogen/Green Ammonia Refuelling Hub for Green Shipping. MNRE has also identified VOCPA as the nodal Port on the East Coast for the development of Port infrastructure & logistics development for Offshore Wind and green Hydrogen Projects on a large scale.