AIPEF seeks Hooda's intervention to solve Yamuna Nagar thermal issues

V K Gupta18 April, 2012

Seeking the intervention of chief minister Haryana to solve the issues at Yamuna Nagar thermal plant, AIPEF has alleged that Reliance has become a powerful organisation than the government itself - since it is blaming engineers for the turbine failure at the plant, which surely is the fault of the organisation.
ALL INDIA Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has requested Chief Minister Haryana to impress upon Reliance Infra and Shanghai China to attend to the design and construction defects at Yamuna Nagar thermal at their cost.

Padamjit Singh, Chairman AIPEF has written to Chief Minister Haryana that the Chinese made turbine supplied by Reliance Infra suffered a major failure due to faulty design and construction. The entry of hot water into the turbine resulted in bending of the rotor on September 25 last year and the unit is on forced outage since then.

An enquiry committee of Haryana Power Generation Company Ltd.(HPGCL) investigated the incident and found that the high pressure as well as low pressure drains of turbine were connected to a common header instead of having separate headers as per normal practice. After the enquiry committee report was finalised in November 2011, no action has been taken by HPGCL to attend / rectify the design and construction lapses due to which the turbine failure occurred.

Padamjit said that since the final takeover of units has not been achieved yet, there is a clear cut case for Reliance Infra and the Chinese manufacturer to rectify and attend the design and construction lapses on their part for both the units at their cost.

The first unit at Yamunanagar is also on breakdown/ outage due to turbine vibrations for the last 18 days. The necessary rectification in the construction / design which was to have been carried out on unit 2 is also required to be carried out on unit 1 since the design / construction defect is of similar nature in both the units.

AIPEF alleged that HPGCL which is being run and managed by ‘non engineers’ is paralyzed and unable to take decisions of technical nature. The chairman HPGCL holds simultaneous charge of about half a dozen other organizations / departments and is in no position to do justice to HPGCL. It is necessary that CEA may actively intervene since HPGCL is an organization which is not working on technical lines.

There is a widespread perception that Reliance is an organization which is more powerful than the government itself. The case of turbine failure at Yamunanagar thermal plant and then putting the blame on engineers proves this perception.