SHIVAMOGGA/BENGALURU: The fire at the Sharavathi power generating station on Wednesday has wiped off around 800 MW that was being added to the state’s kitty of power.
The cost of production of power was also the cheapest at 24 paise per unit and the state will have to compensate for this loss by upping power generation from other hydel sources and also purchasing power from the Central grid at a higher price.
Assuring that there would no shortage in power supply to both domestic and industrial consumers, Energy Minister D K Shivakumar said that power generation will be increased in Linganamakki, Gerusoppa and Mahatma Gandhi power generation units.
“We will utilise these stations to their optimum capacity by diverting the water to these units,” he said.
The minister asserted that the government had taken all measures to provide power to the entire state in the coming months by purchasing power from central government (`4.50 paise per unit), exchange and from other sources at `5.80 per unit. The minister was addressing the media after a visit to the Sharavathi generating station on Friday afternoon along with Energy Department officials.
Speaking about the loss incurred, he said, “This is an accident. We cannot make up for this loss from elsewhere. It certainly costs a huge amount to purchase power from other sources. We have to bear with it, it is inevitable.”
As on Friday, the actual consumption across the state was 193.96 MU (Mega Units).
Meeting this demand were major hydel power stations contributing 15.60 MU, minor hydel stations contributing 3.81 MU, thermal stations generating about 37.03 MU, Central generating stations contributing about 46.95 MU and non-conventional energy and other sources contributing about 90.57 MU.
Committee to be FormedThe government will constitute a committee of high-level officers from CPRI, KPCL, KPTCL and retired officials to probe into the fire at the Sharavathi Hydro Power Generation unit (SHPG) in Jog on February 18.
Speaking about the incident, Shivakumar said the fire broke out due to short circuit around 4.30 pm on Wednesday due to single phase-to-earth fault in the Sharavathi-Talaguppa-3 220 KV line.
At this juncture, a sudden power flow of 21,000 kilo amps led to a fire breaking out in a cable duct situated in second floor of the unit. All the nine units were immediately shut down.
The entire control room was gutted and even the cable duct room was burnt to ash.
However, there were no damages to switch yard, CT, PT and isolators.
“Entire units in the Sharavathi station will be modernised with advanced technology with top priority to safety measures and keeping the next 100 years in view,” said Shivakumar. He said every switch, line, generator and all electrical equipment will be tested before restructuring and renovating the entire unit.
Raichur Power Generation Improves
With the functioning of Unit 7, generation by the Raichur Thermal Power Station has considerably increased from Friday. Owing to paucity of water from the Krishna river, the generation in Unit 1, 7 and 8 were stopped from February 17. Now that water has been released from the Narayanpur dam to the river, RTPS authorities are able to restart Unit 7. If the situation improves, Unit 8 will also be put to service, the authorities said. The generation was around 600 MW since last three days.