Water crisis has shut down many thermal power plants
6 May 2016 11:29 PM GMT
Goyal said in Lok Sabha that Maharashtra Power Generation Company Ltd has informed that all units at Parli Thermal Power Station (1130 mw) in Beed district of the state were under outage due to water shortage since
June-July 2015.
The Minister said several other thermal power generating units in different states are also temporarily under shut down due to non availability of water. Goyal said a number of steps have been adopted to overcome water shortage in thermal power plants include installation of dry ash handling system, installation of ash water recirculation system and installation of zero water discharge system.
The Minister, however, made it clear that there is no shortage of electricity in the country and sufficient power was available in the country. Replying to a supplementary, Goyal said the Modi government has set a target of producing 1,75,000 mw renewable energy by 2022. Later replying a supplementary question, the Power Minister sought to downplay the situation saying not so many thermal power stations were shut due to water crisis.
Goyal said the five units of Parli station in Maharashtra were shut, of which three are more than 25 years old and, in any case, these would have shut soon. Two of them have been decommissioned
very recently.
“So, we may all kindly note that there is no problem of water as far as the areas where the power plants are situated,” he said. The Minister said some power plants were shut down for three days, five days or ten days and as of now, in Udupi in Karnataka, there is a 600 mw project with two units which are currently not working and there are three units of a private company of 300 mw each in Maharashtra which are shut.
“They have shortfall of water because of which power is not generated. I would like to place on record and inform the entire country that there is no shortage of electricity in the country and sufficient electricity is available across the country.
“We have a mobile app by name Vidyutpravah.in, in which we give information every 15 minutes about the power availability across the country and the price at which it is available. We also give the data of the states,” he said.
Stalled hydro project not to impact 24X7 power supply plans
Stalled hydro power projects of 4,341 MW capacity planned to be implemented in the 12th Plan period (2012-17) will not impact government’s target of ensuring round the clock electricity supply to all, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. “As more than 95 per cent of the capacity addition target for the 12th Five Year Plan has already been achieved during first four years of the plan, therefore, the stalled hydro projects, which constitute only 4,341 mw of the generation capacity, are not expected to impact the government’s plan to ensure 24X7 electricity supply across the country in a significant,” Goyal said in a written reply to Lok Sabha. The minister said, “A generation capacity target of 88,537 mw, excluding 30,000 MW of renewable energy sources, was fixed for 12th Plan.
During first four years of the 12th Plan i.e. during 2012-13 to 2015-16, a capacity of 84,990.7 mw has been achieved from conventional Energy Sources, which is 95.99 per cent of the target fixed for the entire Plan period (till March end 2017).”
Earlier in March, Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh had told the Lok Sabha that the planned hydro power generation capacity addition of 4,371 mw out of a total target of 10,897 mw in the 12th Plan will not be completed. “Based on the current status of works, out of 12th Plan hydro capacity addition target of 10,897 mw, capacity aggregating 4,371 mw is slipping, and 930 mw capacity is critical to commissioning during the 12th Plan,” he had said.
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