No. of views : (2476)
TN to buy more power, the thermal units shut down
Posted on: 11/Jan/2019 10:13:25 AM
There would be a shortage of 1000 MW of power in the state of Tamil Nadu. The reason for this is due to closure of as many as 3 Tangedco-NTPC joint venture thermal units in Vallur in the district of Tiruvallur based on an order from the High Court.
Now cool weather is prevailing in TN and despite of this cool weather the power demand is peaking at 14500 MW in TN. In order to maintain the supply of power, the discom has got an important challenge on its hands now. The superb information gathered is there would not be any power cut in TN and this was as per the officials belonging to Tangedco. It must not be forgotten that the joint venture units were shut due to Madras High Court’s order that stopped the discharge of fly ash and bottom ash by the units into the Vallur pond. The 3 units have got a total capacity of 1500MW and the joint venture company has written to the chairman of Tangedco regarding closure of these 3 units. Time frame for restarting these units was not given.
On Tuesday, in a letter to the chairman and director(projects) of Tangedco, Mr. Debasis Sarkar, chief executive officer, NTECL explained about how in the view of the order from the HC regarding stopping of discharge of fly ash and bottom ash into the pond of NTECL-Vallur, the units were shut with immediate effect. The important point is the three units with a total capacity of 1500 MW were commissioned between the years 2010 and 2012. These units have been shut many times since then either for coal shortage or for technical issues etc.
An official belonging to Tangedco explained about how local coal only could be used by these 3 units and how these units would not be able to generate power if there was any shortage of fuel. He pointed out that the power generated by these 3 units was sold to Kerala and Puducherry. The official later hinted that Tangedco would purchase power from the open market based on the demand. He threw light on how the fly ash issue is present in all the thermal units of Tangedco.
