The Hindu Business Line : Water shortage affects Kolaghat power station

PAUCITY of water is threatening to derail the smooth operation of the Kolaghat Thermal Power Station (KTPS), whose output now seems to be linked with the ebb and tide of the Rupnarayan river, from where the 1260 MW power plant draws its water.

The State averted a power crisis on Wednesday by shedding load in the city area (served by CESC) as well as the entire State (served by the West Bengal State Electricity Board) and by curbing exports, as three of the 210 MW units at the KTPS had to be shut down one after the other with the pumps failing to draw water from the river.

The river, on its way to the Bay of Bengal, has dried up leading to the springing up of sand banks in the middle of it, which has severely restricted water flow in the part of the river flowing close to the power plant in Midnapore district in West Bengal. Sources at West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd (WBPDCL) admitted that while they had urged the officials to the Kolkata Port Trust to carry out dredging to improve water flow, the sudden and drastic drop in the water level was "somewhat an unexpected" ebb in the river."

"The situation is set to improve but in the absence of a more permanent solution to this problem, it will continue to dog the power plant which was set up in the early eighties", sources told Business Line.

They also said that while this was a problem faced by the plant in the dry months, the recent shutdown was unprecedented. "The monsoons usually washes away the banks", they said.

With the higher secondary examinations now on in the State, the WBSEB, to which the WBPDCL sells its entire generation, has decided to supply power on a priority basis to the domestic sector.

Industrial load has been curbed to the extent of 100 MW . It is resorting to overdrawal of power from the eastern grid to save the situation. The WBSEB bought additional 457 MW from the grid on Wednesday.

However, although under the current availability based tariff system, this entailed a small penalty payment, when supply position from the Central sector utilities was good, it is a potentially dangerous situation since the payout could increase with a greater shortfall and in case supply falls further.

"For the sake of grid management, the penalty rates would be higher then", power sector sources said.

With tides improving water flow, WBPDCL has been able to bring back to generation an additional unit, while improving the generation of the units running.

Instead of their rated capacity of 630 units, the three operational units generated only 440 MW. .

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