CHENNAI: In the wake of the recent bunker collapse at Mettur Thermal Power Station (MTPS), which claimed the lives of two workers, experts have urged the Tamil Nadu Power Generation Corporation Limited (TNPGCL) to conduct a thorough review of all thermal power plants in the state.
The Mettur incident raised serious concerns about the safety of ageing thermal plants and the need to ensure that safety standards are up to date.
A Sekkizhar, state general secretary of the TNEB Employees Federation, said, “This is a deeply unfortunate event. While such incidents are rare, TNPGCL must prioritise safety measures in all ageing thermal plants to protect employees,” he said.
MTPS, which began operations in 1987, has been running for nearly 37 years, well beyond the standard lifespan of 25-30 years for thermal power plants. Sekkizhar pointed out that technical issues are inevitable in such old plants and urged TNPGCL to inspect the machineries in all four units of MTPS without any delay.
He called for the abolition of the contract worker system, advocating for direct recruitment to ensure better accountability and employee welfare.
Highlighting the challenges of balancing the power grid with renewable energy (RE), he said, as per central government guidelines, grid priority is given to RE.
However, restarting thermal plants after being shut down for RE integration often leads to technical and economic difficulties, he said. “Technically, restarting a thermal plant requires a gap of 48 hours after shutdown. But in some cases, they are restarted within 10-15 hours due to power demand, leading to additional strain and losses,” he explained.
A senior TNEB engineer, speaking to TNIE on condition of anonymity, highlighted the challenges in maintaining decades-old thermal power plants in North Chennai and Thoothukudi. These plants have been operational for nearly 30 and 40 years respectively.
“We are sourcing spare parts from BHEL, but they have stopped producing equipment for 210 MW power plants. This has made it difficult for us to procure essential machinery,” the engineer said.
Citing a past incident, he said in 2018-19, the fifth unit of the Thoothukudi plant remained non-functional for nearly 15 months due to lack of spare parts. Eventually, officials had to visit Punjab to source second-hand components from a decommissioned plant. “The state government must either modernise these plants or decommission them,” he added.
A senior TNPGCL official said a safety review of the Mettur plant will be done with the help of Structural India. “However, no such review is planned at the moment for other ageing thermal plants,” he added.