3 RTP units trip, power crisis

Yogindra Mohan

Patiala
Power crisis in Punjab looms large for Saturday and a couple of days to come as three units of the Ropar Thermal Plant tripped on Friday afternoon. This led to a shortfall of 630 megawatt of power in the generation system leading to cuts of varying duration in several towns.

According to sources in the Punjab Power Supply Corporation Limited, the authorities at the Ropar Thermal Plant were in the process of restarting unit number three of the plant that had been closed for sometime because of annual maintenance. However, in the process there developed a technical snag which led to tripping of unit numbers two, five and six. Each of these units has a generation capacity of 210 megawatt.

With the tripping of these units, there was a jerk on the grid and the distribution system collapsed for sometime. The authorities were able to restart two units late in the evening while two units of 210 megawatt each are still not working.

In view of the shortfall of 420 megawatt of power from the Ropar Thermal Plant, there are power cuts likely in the towns of Ropar, Ludhiana, Mandi Gobindgarh and Mohali.

One of the units of the Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Plant with a generation capacity of 250 mega watt is already closed because of boiler leakage.

Even on Thursday, there was partial grid failure in Punjab due to foggy conditions tripping six thermal units and a number of transmission lines.

All the four running thermal units at Lehra Mohabatt and two units at Bathinda tripped on Thursday early morning at 3.30 am leading to major blackout in parts of Punjab. The tripping of transmission lines due to foggy conditions started just after midnight.