Water shortage at Lehra thermal plant to hit power generation

Rajay Deep
Bathinda

Thanks to the closure of Bathinda branch of the Sirhind canal, Power crisis in Punjab is soon going to multiply. The state is on the verge of facing loss of lakhs of electricity units as the water reservoirs of the 920 MW Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP), Lehra Mohabbat, have begun drying up. As per the latest information, the GHTP is left with just one week’s water storage.

Water is the essential part of the thermal plant as it is used for steam, cooling purposes, ash conveying and in many other activities.

The GHTP lakes have maximum storage capacity of about 16 lakh metric cube of water, which makes the plant run for about 13-14 days with daily consumption of nearly one lakh metric cube of water, when the power generation units run at full capacity. Water flow in the Sirhind canal that is the main feeding source of the GHTP had been closed from the Ropar head on April 10. It has been learnt that the closure would continue till April 30 as some work on National Highway 1 is going on. Meanwhile, finding it an

opportunity, the canal department has allocated the job of de-silting

the bed on contract basis for the period.

Accusing the irrigation department of giving no prior intimation regarding the closure of the canal for such a long period, highly posted engineers of the thermal plant authorities, on Saturday, informed that finding the water level in the reservoirs going down and down, they contacted irrigation office at Bathinda from where they came to know about closure of main canal for 20 days.

“Hit by Water shock, we will be left with no other option to give electric shock to public as water level in GHTP lakes is going down day by day and without water the plant can’t run,” said a senior engineers of the GHTP.

The plant has four units (2x210 MW and 2x250 MW), which are at presently running on full load and the plant is producing 220 lakh units of electricity every day.

Sources informed that the lakes were filled to their full capacity on April 13, when the last drop of water flowed in the canal after being closed from the Ropar head on April 10.

Half of the water has already been consumed and only seven lakh metric cubic of usable water is left in the lakes which is just sufficient for another a week, means maximum up to April 27, whereas water would reach Lehra plant lakes on May 3-4, if it is released on May 1 from head works. Under such circumstances, plant may face closure for five-six days.

And the closure period may increase if the water release gets delayed beyond schedule date. As per the engineers estimate, the minimum generation loss to the PSPCL on account of closure of GHTP would be around Rs 7 to 8 crores daily.

Confirming the details, Chief Engineer, GHTP, Lehra Mohabbat, MR Parhar said, “Despite being well aware about the requirement of power generation, the irrigation department played a callous role that without giving us prior intimation they stopped the water supply. Now, in this case, thermal plant would be closed after April 27, if water was not released before that.”

However, he informed that the higher officials of the PSPCL were apprised of the fact and the dialogue was on with the state government to do the needful.