NTPC has learnt its lessons from the recent Hudhud cyclone and will take all steps to make its second thermal power plant coming up at Pudimadaka in Visakhapatnam district more cyclone-proof, according to A.K Samanta, Group General Manager of NTPC-Simhadri.
NTPC-Simhadri at Parwada in Visakhapatnam district has four units of 500 MW each and all the four units had to be shut down for four days after the Hudhud cyclone hit Visakhapatnam on October 12.NTPC is setting up a super thermal power plant (4,000 MW) at Pudimadaka village in Visakhapatnam district.
Samanta said here on Wednesday that the NTPC-Simhadri authorities had followed all the standard operating procedures and taken all the precautions and that was why the power generation could be resumed so quickly even after a cyclone of the magnitude of Hudhud.
"However, we have learnt from the experience. We suffered four days of total blackout and in future, we would have to prepare for such eventualities and may be make some alternative arrangements. In constructing the Pudimadaka plant, we would take all these into consideration and may be we have to build structures which can withstand windspeeds up to 250 kmph.''
He said even during the recent cyclone, critical installations remained quite safe and only the roofings and certain other outer coverings were hit in the units 3 and 4. Units 1 and 2 remained safe.
Samanta said within four days, NTPC-Simhadri was in a position to resume generation on a full scale but APEPDCL was not in a position to evacuate power as the transmission system had been damaged. That was why full-scale power generation in all the four units (500 apiece) could be resumed only towards the month-end.