The Hindu Business Line : NTPC Kayamkulam unit to resume generation soon

NATIONAL Thermal Power Corporation's Kayamkulam plant has resumed pumping water for generation purposes after flushing the base feed clean of intruding seawater in two days of salvaging operations.

This was achieved by first letting out additional water from the Kallada dam into the Achenkoil River that provides the supply to the plant. The river is now being made to run into a temporary downstream bund that will hold enough clean water for feeding the plant. Work on the structure is expected to be completed by Thursday.

The plant draws its water requirements from the Achenkoil River at a point in the upper reaches of the low-lying Kuttanad area. Downstream flow in the river had been badly hit due to successive failures of monsoon, allowing saline water to muddle up the Kuttanad backwaters and the river system that empties itself into it. The pumping station supplying fresh water to the plant had to be shut down last week after ambient salinity crossed tolerable limits. The salvage operation may just have prevented a situation from coming about wherein generation at the 360-MW plant would have been badly hit. This would have only worsened an already-bleak power availability scenario in Kerala. Earlier on Sunday, NTPC had said that power generation would have to be stopped in four days for want of fresh water to run the steam turbine.

The plant needs 70,000 cubic metres of water every day. It has got two gas turbines of 115 MW-capacity each and a 130-MW steam turbine that feeds on the heat generated by the gas turbines.

The measures put into operation on Wednesday was part of the emergency package decided on at a meeting convened on Tuesday by the Kerala Chief Minister, Mr A.K. Antony. Among those who attended the meeting included Mr S.S. Mediratta, General Manager, NTPC, Kayamkulam, and Mr T.M. Manoharan, Chairman, Kerala State Electricity Board.