Business Line - Power
KEC to launch country's biggest tower testing station

Amit Mitra

Hyderabad, April 1

KEC Internationalis all set to commission the country's tallest tower testing station at Nagpur on April 2, marking a significant step for the company in the power transmission space.

KEC is part of the Rs 15,000-crore RPG Group, which is a major EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) player in laying of transmission lines.

The Rs 40-crore tower, claimed to be the largest of its kind in the world, is capable of testing power transmission towers up to 35 x 35 m base dimension, 100 m high with voltage rating up to 1,200 kV.

“The test station is also the most advanced using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, controlled by a micro-processor,” Mr Ramesh Chandak, the company's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, told Business Line.

Built in an area of 65,000 sq m, the test bed can be subjected to compression or uplift load up to 1,200 tonnes.

“The inaugural test tower is to be used in India's first 1,200 kV transmission line running between Wardha and Aurangabad in Maharashtra. The station will facilitate validation of the largest towers ever designed for the country's futuristic Extra High Voltage energy network,” Mr Chandak said.

Explaining about the technical features of the tower, he said all signal and control commands are through a single high speed optical fibre cable, with a built-in facility to allow remote diagnostics.

The design of enormous steel girders anchored in concrete foundation allows testing of all shapes of towers, including the futuristic mono poles for high voltage transmission.

The company has three tower testing stations located at Jaipur, Jabalpur and Mumbai, capacity of testing towers of up to 1,000 kV transmission line.