Mettur project to lessen power cuts

 

 

Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corpo­ration (Tangedco) has de­clared commercial operation of Mettur Stage III unit on October 12, after it completed 28 days of continuous operation, a senior official of Tangedco said.  “To achieve commercial operation declaration, the unit has to run continuously for 28 days including three successive days of full load operation,” the official said.

 

At present, the official said  the generation had been suspended in the new unit from November 1 for carrying out performance guarantee test. “Every equipment will be tested for its performance during the test. The parameters guaranteed such as power output, heat rate, efficiency and steam production will be verified,” the official said. 

 

 Till now,  Chinese engineers had operated the plant, as the boiler, turbine and generator were imported from China. “Once the performance test is completed, Tang­e­dco  engineers will take ov­er the operation from BGR Energy who is the engineering, procurem­ent and construction contractor,” the official said, adding that the plant would begin its sustained generation in mid-Dec­ember after completion of all the performance test. He also pointed out that the new unit has generated over 1500 million units during the trial operation since May last year. 

 

The 600-mw unit built at a total cost of Rs 3,564 cro­re, should have comm­enced commercial operation in September 2011 as per the original plan. Two 600 units of stage II No­rth Chennai thermal power station is also exp­ected to start commercial operation in Decem­ber and January next year, the official expresses hope. “If all goes as per plan, the state is expected to get 1,800 mw additionally by end of January 2014. This will help bring down the state’s shortage of 4000 mw,” the official said.