Salem :
The third unit of Mettur Thermal Power Plant (MTPP) made its mark in the history of Tamil Nadu thermal power plant on Monday. It has been running continuously for 312 days since December 12, 2013, and has produced 210 megawatt (MW) of power per day. The previous record was of 311 days by the fourth unit of the same plant.
The Tamil Nadu government has constructed a new thermal power plant at a cost of 3,550 crore producing 600 MW of power along with the existing four thermal plants which will produce 840 MW (4X210MW) of power in Mettur. The Mettur Dam’s hydroelectric units produced 1,000 MW on an average every day out of the state’s total hydro generation capacity of 3683.40 MW. Power will usually be generated during the Cauvery delta irrigation spell from June 12 to January 28. However, since 2013, the water level in the Stanley Reservoir has been high. “Three years ago, water level was very low in the dam. Due to heavy downpour in Karnataka, the dam crossed 100 ft mark in the last two years. So we have got plenty of water for power production,” a senior engineer from MTPP told TOI.
Most of the times, power production in any one of the MTPP would be stopped due to technical snag. Sometimes, the production will suffer due to low availability of coal blocks. “Battling all these issues, we have been running the third unit continuously for 312 days,” the engineer said. According to him, the 600 MW new fifth unit started generating power from march 2012 while the other four units of 210 MW each function in a phased manner. “All the four units are operated whenever there is a demand for excess power in the state. Last year our state had acute power shortage and all the four units started its functions alternately to generate 480 MW. The water level in the dam also supported us and we have realised maximum power generation in all the four units along with the 600 MW unit,” the engineer said.
Officials from the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) felicitated all the employees of MTPP on Monday for running the third unit without any technical fault.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / TNN / October 21st, 2014