Nellore: APGenco’s plans to begin commercial operations from the first 800MW unit of their Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Plant, better known as Krishnapatnam thermal power unit, was once again hit by snags.
The unit tripped after achieving 700 MW power generation on Wednesday morning due to a defect in a pressure pump. Higher authorities of Genco were keen to commence commercial operations in a couple of days but the latest glitch is likely to delay the schedule. Although the first 800 MW units were synchronised to the grid at the end of March this year, the generation was not consistent owing to technical problems.
The optimum generation of 800MW was achieved briefly only once on August 28, 2014. Apart from frequent tripping due to rusting of porcelain insulators and other equipment defects, court cases against ash pond and ash lines have also contributed to the delay in the project. The engineers managed to increase production to 650MW in the month of October. However, they were forced to stop due to a serious snag.
“We addressed all these shortcomings and achieved 700MW few days back but breakdown of a pressure pump forced us to stop the generation. The snag is being rectified on a war footing to start generation in a couple of days and achieve 800MW within a week. The commercial operation date will be announced after full load is observed for two days," said a senior official of APGenco.
