KARNATAKA: When Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, the then President of India, laid the foundation of the Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) in 1980, it was thought of as a panacea to all power problems in the state. Karnataka was reeling under a power crisis at the time and the run of droughts had made all the hydel power plants – on which Karnataka used to depend heavily – unreliable to cope with the demand.
The plant made a humble beginning: the first unit started generation in 1985 and the remaining six units of 210 MW each were commissioned subsequently. All told, the plant was to generate 1,470 MW from its seven units – a huge chunk of the state’s demand. An eighth unit of 250 MW was to be synchronised and commissioned in June but that has not happened so far. When it does, the installed capacity of RTPS will go up to 1,720 MW – and will meet around 77 per cent of Karnataka’s power demand through thermal plants (the only other thermal plant onstream right now is the Bellary Thermal Power Station with an installed capacity of 500 MW).
RTPS has seen some happy days – the plant load factor was 90.39 per cent in 2002-2003 and went up to 93 per cent in 2008 and was also awarded by the Centre for its efficiency.
But that was in the past.
Today, several problems plague the plant and the plant load factor has come down to 52 per cent — as of last week it was only producing 930 MW. The plant load factor is a measure to check the output of a power plant compared with the maximum output it could produce.
Also, the plant created a national history by commissioning unit seven in a record 25 months. Today, however, RTPS is mostly remembered for the frequent outages and poor maintenance.
Washed coal versus unwashed coal
The Raichur Thermal Power Station consumes about 3,000 metric tonnes of coal to generate five million units of power. Thus, it needs 21,000 metric tonnes of coal every day.
The Western Coal Fields (WCF) of Maharashtra, Mahanadi Coal Fields of Orissa and Singareni Collieries of Andhra Pradesh supply the required coal to the RTPS. However, 1996-97 onwards, there have been complaints of inferior quality of coal. Huge-sized boulders were found in the coal wagons. The engineers complained that the coal supplied by the MCF and the WCL from certain mines was of inferior quality. Some of them even took the boulders to a KPCL meeting at Bangalore to highlight the problem.
Thermal power plants across the world employ a technique called coal washing to take care of such problems. When coal is mined, several other impurities are scooped up with it. There could be boulders, soil and other paraphernalia (parts of digging equipment included) that turn up along with the coal. Coal washing is achieved by passing the coal through a process called gravity separation – something similar to sedimentation. The coal is fed into barrels which have a liquid that allows the good-quality coal to float whereas the impurities sink to the bottom. The good quality is then separated, pulverised into smaller pieces of 50-100 mm size and used in the thermal plant.
However, coal washing was a new concept and had no precedence in India. After prolonged discussions, Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd, which runs RTPS, made the decision to get the coal washed at the supply point. For this, it invited agencies to wash the coal and fixed a price – `500 for every metric tonne of coal washed. Later, this amount was hiked to `900 per metric tonne. The performance and the plant load factor improved considerably after washed coal was fed.
The present managing director of KPCL, S M Jaamdar, however, decided that washing coal was a waste of time and money after he took over in March 2008. Between 2004 and 2009, the practice caused the exchequer “a loss” of `3,000 crore was the argument that was put forward. KPCL may have ended up saving that money but the rapid decline in plant load factor from 2008 onwards is a testimony to the efficacy of the coal washing process.
Apart from quality, the quantity of coal supplied to RTPS is also a cause for concern. There have been cases when there has been a shortage in the quantity of coal supplied against what was ordered.
“Earlier, a liaison officer used to be deployed for checking the quantity of coal. The removal of the officer does hamper the quantity of coal supplied,” says former KPCL director, B G Rudrappa.
Theft of Light Diesel Oil
Whenever RTPS faces a shortage in coal supply, light diesel oil (LDO) is used as an alternative. The utilization of LDO has increased considerably these days.
In April this year, the CISF unearthed an oil theft mafia, while the incidents of ‘material theft’ are common at the plant. The involvement of RTPS engineers is also cited as among the main reasons plaguing the Raichur plant. The Executive Director of the Raichur Plant, Nagaraj, was also shifted following the ‘oil theft’ incidence.
Some tanker drivers were found siphoning off the LDO and the police have booked criminal cases against them.
Newly-appointed Executive Director of RTPS, Narayan Prasad, conceded that such incidents are still rampant. “Even the most heavily guarded places have such incidents and so it is at Raichur. But we have been working towards curbing such practices,” Prasad added.
Old is gold. Or is it?
RTPS is celebrating its silver jubilee this year. And that exactly is the problem with the plant, it seems.
In the last one year, the seven units have tripped 54 times due to technical snags, while in June alone, the plant faced 789 hours of forced outages, which roughly translates to 33 days of ‘no generation.’
Besides turbine problems and blockages in tubes, ‘boiler tube failure’ has plagued the plant. A tube failure mainly happens due to lack of quality control, stress rupture and high temperature corrosion. Experts say that chances of a tube failure increase as high pressure boilers age and cross 10-15 years of operation.
“The boiler tube failure is one of the common problems at the RTPS," says Joint Director (Boilers), Department of Factories and Boilers, Manjunath.
The Department of Factories and Boilers is conducting its assessment checks on unit 2 and unit 6, which have been taken out for annual maintenance. Unit 2 will remain in its custody for 60 days, because of its age.
KPCL Chief Engineer (Thermal Designs), V S Kulkarni, says that the boiler can work for even 100 years if it is efficiently maintained. That basically means that each unit should be taken out for periodic maintenance and defective parts should be replaced. But with paucity of time and money to replace these parts, that remains a dream.
Replacement of old units an option?
Karnataka Power Corporation had last year made plans of replacing Units 1 and 2. However, the plan was shelved due to various reasons. “First of all the financial burden was too high. Secondly, the state couldn’t not afford to do away with two units, while it waited for some four years for the new units to come up,” Narayan Prasad, Executive Director, RTPS said. It is estimated that the cost of setting up a thermal plant is around `5.5 crore per MW.
In a bid to address the issues of RTPS, the State power corporation has elected three consultants to study the problems at RTPS.
KPCL Director S M Jaamdar, however, said he saw no solution to the RTPS issues anytime soon.
“There are issues with RTPS and we have to live with them at least for the present. The machinery is old but we can’t replace them, so we have to use what we get,” Jaamdar emphasised.
He said that the department was taking all measures to guarantee the smooth functioning of RTPS. "At least for the present, I can say that all five units are functioning at their optimum,” he added.
