No cut in water supply to two power stations

Nagpur: Mahagenco’s two thermal power stations — Koradi and Khaparkheda — will continue to get water from the Pench reservoirs. The Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) has taken this decision as the requirement of the power stations is less and any cut will effect the entire state’s power scenario.
Guardian minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule will take the final decision in this regard in the meeting organized on Wednesday.
A meeting of VIDC officials was convened by executive director Avinash Surve on Tuesday evening to discuss the issue. His subordinates said that the total requirement of the Koradi and Khaparkheda plants was 67 million metre cube (MMC) in a year of which only 20 MMC was supplied by VIDC. The rest is supplied by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) from its Bhandewadi sewage treatment plant (STP).
“The requirement of the two power plants is less than 2 MMC per month. At present, we have this much water in the two Pench reservoirs — Totladoh and Navegaon Khairi. So we don’t need to reduce water supply to the plants and there is no need for alternate day supply,” said Surve.
The water requirement of the two power plants is about 120 million litres per day (MLD). Both have reservoirs to store one day’s water requirement. Mahagenco officials said that if water supply to the plants had been reduced they would have reduced generation so as to leave some water in the reservoirs for the ‘dry day’.
The project of the NMC and Mahagenco to treat city’s sewage water and utilize it for power generation has come to the rescue of the two power stations. The NMC is supplying 135 MLD treated sewage from STP for the last two years.
Also, there are no chances of effect on the two power stations in case of less storage in the Pench reservoirs this monsoon. An official from VIDC said the requirement of the two power stations is likely to reduce to below 10 MMC from Pench reservoirs. “NMC had commissioned the second STP with a capacity of 200 MLD at Bhandewadi. NMC will supply 190 MLD to the two power stations. Work to lay the pipeline from STP to the power stations is going on and is likely to be completed by December,” he said.
Bawankule has convened a meeting on the water shortage at Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) hall on Wednesday at 4pm. Officials of VIDC, NMC, Mahagenco, etc will attend it. He will decide on the future course of action.
THE SCENARIO
* Requirement of Koradi and Khaparkheda plants is 67 MMC
* 20 MMC is supplied by VIDC
* Rest of the requirement is met from NMC’s treated sewage
* Raw water requirement per month is less than 2 MMC
* VIDC at present has this much water in Pench reservoirs
* NMC is all set to supply more 190 MLD treated sewage to power stations from December
* Requirement of power stations from Pench reservoirs will further come down drastically