The Hindu Business Line : Bengal Power Corp units to become operational soon

Kolkata, July 7 West Bengal may expect to get the much needed relief from frequent power cuts in next couple of weeks. West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL) — the State’s power generation utility – is expecting to make two units of 300 MW each operational at its Sagardighi thermal power station in next 15 days.

Of the two, one unit is expected to be commercially commissioned at full load. The other one was commissioned in March this year but stopped generation recently due to break down of turbine blade. This (coupled with break down of a new unit of Durgapur Projects Ltd) has led to heavy supply shortfall in the State. The unit is now expected to resume operations.

Incidentally, the critical power equipment of both the Sagardighi units (and DPL) were supplied by Chinese manufacturers (DongFang Electric Corporation) that is now facing a quality probe by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), as was recently mentioned by the Union Power Minister Mr Jairam Ramesh.

Mr Ramesh had raised queries regarding the efficiency of Chinese equipment in Indian conditions especially in regard to the coal quality and the high plat load factor at which units were required to run in India vis-À-vis that in China.

While the Union Minister was all for placing orders with the domestic monopoly supplier BHEL, senior officials of WBPDCL, however, are yet to blame Chinese vendors for the snags.

An official pointed out that apart from being cheaper compared to the equipment supplied by BHEL, Chinese vendors were preferred for timely supply of equipment.

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