Flood hit thermal unit in Tuticorin plant resumes generation after 2 weeks

CHENNAI: Nearly two weeks after the heavy rainfall caused destructive floods in southern districts, Tangedco revived generation in two of its five thermal units of 1050 MW Tuticorin Thermal Power Station on Sunday. However, one of the revived units got tripped within hours of resuming generation.

Following an unprecedented heavy downpour on December 17 and 18, all five units of TTPS each with 210 MW generation capacity were shut down due to inundation.

Private thermal power plants - 525 MW SEPC and 1200 MW Coastal Energen along with 1000 MW NTPL, a joint venture of NLC and Tangedco were also under forced outage due to flooding issues.

The private and NTPL thermal plants resumed generation.

A senior Tangedco official said that unit-4 and unit-5 were revived on Sunday after 13 days of outage due to flooding. However, unit 5 again got tripped due to a condenser issue.

"We are working to bring back the unit-5," the official said.

The TTPS units - 1,2 and 3 would be revived in three to four days.

"The floods have impacted the cooling water channel. The ash has blocked the flow of cooling water. We are taking all steps to resume generation in the three units in the next three to four days," the official added.

The State's power demand hovered around 15,000 MW due to the onset of cool weather conditions with less usage of air conditioners and agricultural pump sets, the official said, adding that with the availability of solar energy during the day time, the power demand could be met with available generation capacity.