PremiumNEW DELHI : In an attempt to ensure continuous electricity supply to medical oxygen plants across the country, the government plans to complete the technical audit of such projects over the next one week, Union power ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
With India continuing to grapple with an acute shortage of oxygen, the Union power ministry, along with state electricity distribution companies (discoms), is conducting an audit of electricity supply to all medical oxygen-producing plants in the country to ensure uninterrupted operations.
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Premium Premium Ensuring constant power supply to medical oxygen plants is critical, as even a brief power cut at such facilities can cause a drop in pressure, setting back the entire production process by about 2-3 hours.
Also, state-run Rural Electrification Corp. (REC) has been appointed as the nodal agency for monitoring power supply to 73 major oxygen generation plants in India.
Mint reported on Monday about the measures being put in place to ensure round-the-clock electricity supply to medical oxygen plants.
“Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) has also been tasked with carrying out a technical audit of power supply of each oxygen plant, particularly those supplying oxygen to NCR. The audit includes assessing the nature of power supply, the source(s) of power supply, availability of alternative arrangements, relay settings, etc. The audit reports further includes both short-term measures to improve power supply, along with long-term measures. So far, 13 plants that are supplying oxygen to Delhi and NCR region have been audited," the statement said.
This comes against the backdrop of an oxygen crisis driven by a surge in coronavirus infections that has also led to a shortage of hospital beds and medicines. The situation is alarming, with several reported deaths of critically ill covid-19 patients due to low oxygen.
“Further, additional 20 plants have been audited and the technical audit results are being shared with the respective state governments for urgent necessary action. The technical audit of rest of the plants is likely to be completed in the next seven days," the statement added.
Some of these measures being implemented include shifting underground a critical portion of a power supply cable to a medical oxygen plant in Dehradun to prevent bird hits from tripping the line and recalibrating the electricity link to another plant in Uttar Pradesh.
“This includes building of suitable redundancies, and isolation of feeders supplying electricity to the oxygen plants. Some of the corrective measures advised included resetting of relays at the Barotiwala plant (Himachal Pradesh) and Kerala Mineral & Metal plant (Kerala); and, laying of a 132kV underground cable for the oxygen plant at Salequi (Uttarakhand) in the stretch prone to bird fault," the statement said.
“Based on the technical audit reports, ministry of power has written to state governments of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Haryana, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh pointing out the remedial measures which need to be taken by the respective state utilities to ensure uninterrupted power supply. Letter has also been written to DVC for carrying out maintenance of its sub-stations supplying power to the oxygen plants within its jurisdiction," the statement added.
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