Efficient hydel projects keep power crisis at bay

The Sharavathi and Varahi hydro power projects have reached a new milestone in the last three quarters of financial year 2019-20 by generating 12.5% more power than the target set by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) of India from April 1 to December 31, 2019. This is thanks to the copious rainfall that lashed the Sharavathi valley last monsoon.

According to officials of the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL), the CEA target of 4,777 million units (MU) for 2019 itself was 20.69% higher compared to the previous year’s target of 3,958 MU.

The generation is 8.21% higher compared to the previous year. This was possible due to the good monsoon which prompted the officials to open the gates of the Linganamakki dam four times this season.

The machines were kept in ready-to generate-technically fit condition on a 24x7 basis. The entire team of civil and electrical employees involved in operation-cum-maintenance worked on a war footing during the complete season.

KPCL Managing Director V Ponnuraj, technical consultant Zafrulla provided the much-needed administrative, technical guidance and support to achieve this. This has been the highest quantum of power generated from these two projects in recent years.

It may be mentioned here that of the 8,846.3 MW of installed capacity of power generation in the state government sector, a lion’s share of 1,977.4 MW is from the Sharavathi and Varahi Hydro projects.

As many as six power generating stations- Sharavathi Generating Station, Linganamakki power house, Mahatma Gandhi power house, Gerusoppa Power House, Varahi underground power house and Mani dam power house have achieved this milestone.

Bhadra Generating Station at BR Project near Bhadravathi has also generated 49.35MU (37.18% higher) than the CEA target of 31 MU and it also comes under the same administration.

The Sharavathi Generating Station and Linganamakki power house alone generated 3837.65 MU against the estimated target of 3437.5 MU set by KPCL. The revenue from selling the power was Rs 149.42 crore from April to December 2019.

Speaking to DH, Karnataka Power Corporation Limited Chief Engineer Chaithanya Prabhu P L, who is in charge of all these projects, said these stations have exceeded the target in 2019 and the same involvement exhibited by the operation-cum-maintenance team during the monsoon will continue in the fourth quarter. With all this, the power scenario of the state in the coming months is all set to be far better compared to previous years.