AIPEF issues white paper on Bhakra spillage
28-Aug-2010
By: Vinod Kumar Gupta Chandigarh: All India Power Engineers Federation has issued a white paper on spillage from Bhakra reservoir demanding that BBMB must allow filling up to 1685 feet in case the inflows pickup in coming days.

Padamjit Singh Chairman AIPEF said that BBMB had opened the spill way gates at Bhakra for five days from August 22 to 27 releasing 100947 cusec days of water with an energy loss of 814 Lac Units at Bhakra and a consequential energy loss of 308 Lac units at Anandpur Sahib Hydro Project. The total energy loss due to spillage comes out to be 1122 Lac units. Thus if the spillage had not taken place, the water could have been utilized in the subsequent months to generate power.

During the 5 days period of August 22 to 27 the total quantum of inflow in the dam was 3.96 Lac cusec days (LCD) out of which 2.18 LCD was utilized for power generation, 0.77 LCD was stored and 1.01 LCD was spilled. Thus, 25.5% of the inflows were spilled while 55% were utilized for generation and 19.5% were stored during the period 22-27 August.

On August24 when inflow in Sutlej Areas down stream of Bhakra dam was already high due to rains and consequently high inflows in seasonal rivulets the additional spillage of 25000 cusecs from Bhakra when the reservoir level was at a comfortable 1673 feet was totally unjustified. This is one major contributory factor resulting in the breach near Anandpur Sahib.

In previous years the Bhakra filling limit was 1680 on August 31 while the additional inflow between August31 and September 20 could be stored up to 1685 since the filling season of Bhakra is upto 20th September. This way even if the reservoir level reaches 1685 on September 20 there is a further storage margin of 5 feet as per design limit of 1690.

This year the BBMB took a negative and retrogressive decision out of fear psychosis to shift the date for achieving 1680 feet from August 31 to September10. This implies that even if there are surplus inflows during the first ten days of September, in case the level is 1680, these would have to be spilled, thereby denying the benefit of full storage up to 1685 feet.

IMD forecast on August 24 stated that rainfall in HP Areas is likely to decline after 48 hrs. On August 25 the forecast confirmed that rains in HP would decline after 24 hrs. Even then BBMB persisted with spillage of the order of 25000 cusecs on 24 and 17000 cusecs on August 25.

AIPEF demands that BBMB should not resort to any further spillage and allow the reservoir to fill up to 1685 feet. Only in case the level crosses 1685 the margin between 1685 and 1690 should be further utilized depending upon inflow trends and IMD forecast.

With present level being just 1675 and increasing by only 0.3 feet per day, any spillage beyond 1680 would be totally unjustified and BBMB must allow filling up to 1685 in case the inflows pickup in coming days