HPGCL loses 72 lakh units daily | PSEB Engineers Association

HPGCL loses 72 lakh units daily from Yamuna Nagar thermal plant
V K Gupta

02 January, 2012

300 MW unit, Yamuna Nagar thermal plant is again down because of a major technical breakdown, putting question mark on quality of Chinese equipment.
HARYANA POWER Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL)islosing 72 lakh units daily with the closure of 300 MW Yamuna Nagar Thermal plant unit, raising doubts about the quality of Chinese equipment.

First it was the problem with Electrostatic Precipitators of unit 2 in 2010 that unit operated at its 60 % capacity and now problems with the turbine of unit.

The unit 2 which was closed on September 25 last after water entered the turbine of unit. The generation from unit is likely to remain zero for next few months as rotor is being sent to China for repair. The turbine bearing and rotor has been reported damaged. The unit was inspected at least twice by Chinese experts but fault could not be rectified.

According to sources, Chinese experts tried the repair/ replacement of defective rotor within India but failed to produce any good results. Now the turbine rotor is being sent to Shanghai Electric Company China for repair by the Reliance, EPC contractor of plant. This is a very time-consuming and costly affair after the warranty period. The revival of unit before the paddy season may be possible, said a senior thermal engineer.

It may be mentioned that the same unit was closed on February 22 in 2010 due to problem in emitting electrodes of Electrostatic Precipitators (ESP) and unit was restored on March 15. The300 MW unit ran subsequently at 60 % capacity for next 8 months.

According to sources, HPGCL engineers at thermal plant were also facing problems in the control system. As per CEA report the generation at Yamuna Nagar thermal was short of 358.57 lakh units of its generation target of 2812 lakh units in first 8 months of year 2011-12. The unit was reportedly under forced outage from April 22 to May 10 in this financial year.

Reliance Power had claimed in December 2009 that it used Chinese equipment to fast track its plans. The quality of Chinese equipment is absolutely no issue at all. There have been a lot of talks about this Chinese equipment performance and things like that. There are plants which have been using Chinese technology and Yamuna Nagar plant (in Haryana) is operational. We don’t own it but we executed it. People had doubts about the Chinese equipment but the plant is operating at 95% peak load factor now.