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Khedar thermal plant slips behind schedule
22-Mar-2010 By: Vinod Kumar Gupta

Hissar: The first 600 MW unit of the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Project Khedar near Hissar which was synchronised with oil firing on December 29 by Bhupinder Singh Hooda Chief Minister Haryana is yet to start generation at full load.

At the time of oil firing of unit it was announced that the unit will start generation to its full capacity only by the third week of January after certain mandatory trials. The synchronization of the 600 MW unit will also set a new record of 35 months for the fastest implementation of such a project.

However the unit was fired on coal and synchronized with the grid on February 11 this year. Sanjeev Kaushal, Managing Director of HPGCL said at the time of coal firing that presently unit is running at a load of around 75 MW with two coal mills in service with in record period of 36 months.

The successful coal firing of Unit-1 has paved the way for achievement of full load operation, which is expected by February 21.

It was expected that state will start getting additional 144 lakh units daily after the unit achieved full load and there will be no power cuts at least in the start of summer season.

Haryana is facing shortage of more than 150 lakh units on any working day reflects that the claims made by the government and power utility were only for purpose of creating early commissioning records in papers only.

According to sources the maximum daily generation so for has been 65 lakh units on March 16 with plant load factor of 45 percent. In the month of February the maximum daily generation was 48 lakh units on February 27.After coal firing on February 11 the unit generated nil power or less than 5 percent of capacity for about 20 days.

The average monthly Plant load factor for the period 18 to 28 Feb was mere 10 percent. For the current month the position is more or less the same with PLF of 10.26 percent for period up to March 20.

A senior engineer said on condition of anonymity that power utility is more interested in showing completion of work on paper without actually completing the job. In this case also many jobs pertaining to coal handling plant and coal mills are yet to be completed.

It may be mentioned that the website of Central Electricity Authority shows the expected Commercial Operation Date (COD) of Unit 1 as Jan 2010, and Unit 2 as March 2010.COD is declared whenthe unit continuously operates at 100 % and has passed all pre commissioning tests including the Performance Guarantee test.
It may be mentioned that two units of 300 MW each at Yamunanagar which were commissioned in April and June 2008 have still not passed the PG test.