Chinese 'invasion' leaves Haryana powerless

Ajay SuraAjay Sura,

CHANDIGARH: If Haryana is hit by erratic and unscheduled power cuts, like many other things, blame it on China. The All-India Power Engineers' Federation, the apex body of power engineers in the country, has shot a letter to the Union power ministry claiming that there have been repeated breakdowns particularly in newly-constructed Chinese units in the power plants of Khedar in Hisar and Yamunanagar districts of Haryana.

In the letter, the federation has informed that the old units of indigenous Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) at Panipat are performing well, while new units from China have developed faults in the turbine at Khedar as well as in the Yamunanagar unit.

Recently, Haryana power minister Ajay Yadav had told TOI that breakdowns in power units of Haryana were so unpredictable that it was not possible for the state to announce power outages in advance anywhere in Haryana, including Gurgaon. Both the units in Yamunanagar, 300 MW each, are shut since April 1, while one unit of 600 MW in Khedar is shut since April 28, causing a sudden shortfall of 1200 MW in the state. Both these plants had Chinese equipment and they were all due to turbine vibrations.

A departmental inquiry into the bending of turbine rotor of unit 2 at Yamunanagar also confirmed serious deficiencies in construction and design of these equipment.

According to official figures, Haryana procured Chinese equipment at a low cost of Rs 3.49 crore per MW at Yamunanagar and Rs 3.19 crore per MW at Khedar in Hisar, while BHEL units would have cost around Rs 4 to 4.5 crore for every MW.

"While buying turbines at low cost could have been a short-term gain, the savings would be wiped out in the first or second year of the plant due to poor performance and generation loss," said the Padamjit Singh, chairman, All-India Power Engineers' Federation. "There is a perception among power engineers in the state that the poor performance of plants in Haryana is a result of winning bids for construction of thermal plants at the lowest price, compromising on quality," added Singh.

Haryana has three major sources of power production - Yamunanagr power plant (600MW), Khedar in Hisar (1200 MW) and Panipat thermal power plant (1360 MW). The state is expected to face minimum shortage of around 288 lakh units daily on account of forced outage of these units till the end of June.

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