About two months after a fire brought power generation to a halt in the 6×150 megawatt underground Srisailam Left Bank Hydro Electric Station (SLBHES) near Eegalapenta in Nagarkurnool district, two of its units are set to resume generation formally on Monday.
After experimental run to check various parameters of the two units on Thursday and Friday by running them for short duration in phases, trial run of Units 1 and 2 commenced on Saturday morning. During the experimental run, the two units were also synchronised with the grid on Friday evening. According to officials of the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TS-Genco), the trial run continued throughout the day and is likely to continue further.
“But for the COVID-19 impact, the two units would have been revived last month itself. Several engineers and employees of the prestigious underground power station with the facility of reversible pump mode of generation and Director (Hydel) of Genco who was supervising the work too have contracted COVID-19 during the restoration/repair works delaying the completion by about three weeks”, a senior executive of the Genco told The Hindu on Saturday.
They were able to bring back the two units to generation stage with spares sourced locally (within the country) and with local experts. “We are happy to revive the two units at least at the fag end of the flood season. It has been quite challenging but our engineers and employees have proved their mettle one more time”, the senior officials stated.
With good inflows continue to reach the Srisailam reservoir from Bhima-Krishna-Tungabhadra rivers, the TS-Genco officials are hopeful of making up at least some lost ground in generation of the low-cost energy. Last year, generation in the Srisailam LBHES during September and October months was about 988 million units (MU).
In 20 days of generation possible this August, nearly 400 MU energy was generated till the fire broke out on August 20 night bringing the facility to a grinding halt., officials explained. As part of the revival of the Srisailam LBHES, the Genco authorities have also replaced the outdated supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system there with a modern facility.
Minister for Energy G. Jagadish Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Genco D. Prabhakar Rao and other senior officials of the Energy department and power utilities are expected re-launch the two units of Srisailam LBHES officially on October 26. Genco officials plan complete restoration of three more units over the next three months, irrespective of possibility of generation, and the remaining one unit before the flood season next year.
