'Quality of Chinese equipment for KNPP not upto the mark'

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Station Director R S Sundar has warned against importing Chinese equipment for power generation, stating that their quality was not up to the mark and they get damaged even before commissioning.

"The Chinese thermal equipment get damaged even before commissioning. The solar power equipment is equally bad. In some cases they get damaged during transport," he said, addressing a three-day conference on "Power and Energy Systems" here.

He said the country should think of depending on its own equipment, especially given the fact that power generation needs to touch six lakh MW. "It is not good if everything is imported or assembled in India."

Citing his experience, he said if one wanted to purchase a six KV motor,it was not available India. Engineers and industry here should gear up to manufacture equipment to meet the needs of the country, he said.

Sundar said international delegates were surprised when they learnt VVER Plant at KKNP was being operated fully by Indians, though all the equipment, except steel and cement, was imported from Russia.

On the power situation in Tamil Nadu,he said there was not only shortage but quality of power supplied was also poor.

Sundar was confident the first unit of KKNP would generate 700 MW by Jan 2014 and TN would get around 460 MW.

He said options on increasing power generation was limited as there was no land for hydro electric power and thermal power was not clean. Countries like China were setting up 29 Nuclear Power plants, while india was setting up only seven.

"Though there are no problems in the first two units of KKNP, we are not able to move ahead with the third and fourth unit due to various factors like liability factor," he said.

N Murugesan, Director General of Central Power Research Institute, said the private sector would play a major role in power generation in the 12th five year plan when the sector was expected to grow by eight to nine per cent.

The country aimed to generate nine to ten lakh MW by 2040 and about Rs 13,72,580 crore would be invested in the sector in the 12th five year plan, he said, adding electrical engineers would be needed on for that.