Reliance claim of commissioning of Khedar unit contested
12-Apr-2010
Vinod Kumar Gupta
Mynews.in

Chandigarh: Reliance Infrastructure Limited claim that their EPC division has commissioned Indias first 600 MW unit of Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Plant station (RGTPS) at Khedar near Hissar and achieved more than full load capacity in a shortest possible time is not based on facts.

All India Power Engineers Federation has checked the data of Haryana SLDC website and found that on March 31 the unit achieved a maximum load of 460 MW and unit tripped in the evening around 2245 hrs. On April 1 unit was lighted up again at 0730 hours and the unit achieved a maximum load of 518 MW between 1500 and 1645 hours and load was reduced subsequently to 351-430 MW. Neither on March 31 nor on April 1 didthe unit run for the full day nor did it achieve rated capacity of 600 MW.

AIPEF in a letter to Prime Minister and Union Power Minister has stressed that this unit is still incomplete, has not achieved 600 MW generations as required per norms of Ministry of Power.

The Ministry of Power memorandum of September 9 2009 regarding commissioning of thermal plant stipulates that a thermal unit can be considered as commissioned only when the construction and commissioning of all plants and equipments required for operation of the unit at rated capacity are complete and the unit achieves full rated load on the designated fuel.

The 600 MW RGTPS Units, if operated at 100percent capacity for 24 hours can generate 144 lacs units. The actual daily generation of this unit for the period 01-09April shows that the daily energy was in range 21 to 96.5 lakh unit per day while maximum MW generated was on 518 MW on April 1 followed by 504 MW on April 6.The unit was shut down at 0515 hrs on April 8 and has not been revived since then. The PLF during period 01 to 11 April was just 34.75percent.

It is thus established that the unit never operated at 600 MW and thus, the statement by Haryana Government and Reliance Infrastructure declaring commissioning of this unit is factually incorrect as it does not meet the norms of Ministry of Power. Neither Government nor Reliance have stated the date from which commissioning has been claimed.

It may be mentioned that earlier the Yamuna Nagar TPS of HPGCL had been given the gold shield award by MOP for early commissioning (2008-09) whereas this station is incomplete even now in April-2010 and has not been finally taken over by HPGCL from the EPC contractorReliance Infra.