NALGONDA: A fire accident occurred on Monday at the Yadadri Thermal Power Plant in Veerlapalem, Damaracherla Mandal, Nalgonda district. The incident happened due to an oil leak in the Unit 1 boiler of the plant. No casualties were reported. However, minor damage occurred to some cables and a valve.
The oil leak from the boiler in the first unit occurred around 1:00 AM on Monday. Simultaneously, welding work was being done below, which caused the leaked oil to catch fire. Gradually, the flames spread to the entire unit, resulting in a large fire.
Upon receiving the information, the fire brigade reached the spot and brought the fire under control. A major disaster was averted due to the timely extinguishing of the flames. Consequently, the 600 MW power generation has been halted.
The unit is currently under the control of BHEL and is in the trial operation phase, with full-scale construction and the Commercial Operation Date (COD) yet to be completed.
Learning about the mishap, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, along with TGGENCO CMD Sandeep Kumar Sultania and BHEL CMD K Sada Siva Murthy, reviewed the situation via video conference with engineers from the GENCO headquarters and YTPS.
The minister instructed the officials to repair the unit as quickly as possible. BHEL officials stated that work on the unit can be restarted from Tuesday and that this damage will not hinder the normal operations of the plant, with repair work expected to be carried out in parallel within 7 to 10 days.
Earlier this year, on February 14th, an accident also took place at the Yadadri Power Plant. Six workers were seriously injured when hot ash fell at the Ash Plant ESP. While the second unit of the plant was generating 800 MW of electricity, the ESP at the ash plant jammed, causing the boiler to trip and shut down. While workers were removing the jammed ash, hot ash suddenly fell on them, severely injuring six of them.