Fire Fighting & ELV for SAEL’s 14.9 MW Agri Waste-to-Energy Plant — Sardarshahar, Rajasthan — Fire Fighting, Low Voltage, Fire NOC

Scope

• Fire Fighting
• Low Voltage
• Fire NOC

• Completed 2025 — fire hydrant, sprinklers, fire extinguishers, all ELV systems and the Fire NOC
• ELV: fire detection & alarm, CCTV, access control, PA / voice evacuation and data/LAN cabling
• Client: SAEL Industries Ltd, through its wholly owned Sardarshahar Agri Energy Pvt Ltd — contracted directly
• 14.9 MW air-cooled plant firing paddy straw, mustard stubble and cotton stalks; 25-year PPA with Rajasthan’s three DISCOMs (ADB project documents)

Capacities delivered

• 14.9 MW agri-residue biomass power plant (client facility)

Engineering challenge

• Sardarshahar Agri Energy is one of SAEL’s agri waste-to-energy plants in Rajasthan, alongside Bhadra, Chhatargarh, Chirawa and Churu. Per the Asian Development Bank’s project documents, it is a 14.9 MW air-cooled plant on a greenfield site at Malsar village, Sardarshahar tehsil, Churu district. It exports power over a 5 km, 33 kV line to the 220 kV Halasar grid substation and sells all its output to Rajasthan’s three distribution companies (JVVNL, AVVNL and JoVVNL) under a 25-year power purchase agreement. It was one of five 14.9 MW SAEL plants financed by the ADB.
• The fuel is the fire risk. The plant burns crop residue — paddy straw, mustard stubble and cotton stalks — stored loose and in bales in large yards, in a hot, dry, windy desert climate where stacked residue can self-heat and a spark can start a fire.
• The power block adds oil and electrical risks to that: a high-pressure boiler, a turbine with its lube-oil system, transformers, cable galleries and a control room that must stay online.
• So the fire-water network has to reach the fuel yard as well as the power block, each zone needs the right protection, and detection, alarm and surveillance must report to a control room that is staffed around the clock.

Our solution

• Fire hydrant: a ring main with hydrant points serving the fuel-storage yard, the fuel-handling area, the boiler and turbine buildings and the switchyard approaches, so a residue fire can be fought from more than one hydrant at once.
• Sprinklers: automatic sprinkler protection for the plant areas in the package, to control a fire before the hydrant crew reaches it.
• Fire extinguishers: a schedule matched to each risk — CO₂ for the electrical rooms and the control room, ABC dry powder for the fuel-handling and general areas — mounted and signed to code.
• ELV: fire detection & alarm, CCTV surveillance, access control, public address / voice evacuation and data/LAN cabling, with routes planned together with the fire and power services and every system reporting to the control room.
• Fire NOC: the statutory fire approval obtained by Secured Engineers through the Rajasthan state process.
• Contracted directly by SAEL as the single contractor for fire fighting, ELV and the NOC, so the alarm, the fire pumps and the approval sat with one team.

Approvals

Work of this scope typically runs through the following statutory approvals, which we manage end to end:

• Fire NOC — the state process

Outcome

• Completed and handed over in 2025. SAEL lists Sardarshahar among its operating Rajasthan plants (June 2026).
• A single point of responsibility for fire protection, ELV and the Fire NOC at a 14.9 MW biomass power station.
• Pump and tank capacities, equipment makes, test records and the NOC reference are held in the project file and are not published on this page. A buyer evaluating similar work can ask for them.

Lessons and engineering considerations

• Size for the fuel yard, not only the power block. In a biomass plant the largest fire load is the straw and stalk store, so plan hydrant coverage and water storage around it.
• Pick extinguishers zone by zone. Electrical, oil and cellulose fuel each need a different extinguishing agent; one generic type across the plant fails audit and fails in a real fire.
• Design ELV and fire as one system. When detection, PA and CCTV all report to a control room staffed 24×7, operators see a fuel-yard hot spot sooner.