Vedanta's 1980MW Talwandi Sabo plant to be fully operational by month end

Vedanta's Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL) on Saturday said that all three units of its 1,980 MW coal-fired thermal power plant in Mansa district of Punjab would be operational by the end of this month.

In a statement, it stated that the TSPL engineers are on war footing to rectify a technical snag.

"The components have already arrived from China and shall reach the plant within a day. Thanks to CMD, PSPCL to get it cleared early from the customs. It is expected that within next week two units shall be functional and by the end of this month, all the three units will be operational," it added.

It stated that the first unit of 660 MW (at the plant) which broke down in March had an unprecedented failure.

"This was communicated to PSPCL (Punjab State Power Corporation Limited) and they have been supportive in early restoration. Usually, such technical breakdown takes about a year’s time for restoration, however TSPL has spent manifolds amounts to ensure that the components are delivered within 3-4 months’ time," it said.

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"In an unprecedented chain of events, the current breakdown of two of our units is unfortunate; restoration of one of these is expected within 48 hours, while the other one might take a little longer. We are targeting all the three units of TSPL to be operational by the end of the month and functional to the full capacity."

Punjab is reeling under an unprecedented power shortage leading to unscheduled load shedding in urban and rural areas, amid scorching heat.

As part of the measures to deal with the power shortage, the PSPCL has already cut down power supply to the industry including rolling mills and induction furnaces till July 11.

Besides, the state government has already directed government offices to function from 8 am till 2 pm till July 10 with a ban on use of air conditioners.

TSPL said it fully acknowledges the current power crisis in Punjab and is working hard to rectify the issue at the earliest to help the government and people of Punjab towards mitigating the crisis.

While the state is reeling under a tremendous crisis, at TSPL, a team of highly qualified engineers from Korea, BHEL, GE & Siemens are diligently working day and night along with TSPL engineers to identify and rectify the technical snag and towards early restoration of the unit, it said.

"One of the major reasons for such frequent breakdown is owing to import coal restrictions and to the challenge in getting import substitute coal from Indian coal mines. This has led to dependence on usage of domestic coal which has high ash content. Despite PSPCL’s support to get supply of import substitute coal, we have not been able to get adequate low ash coal, and high ash content coal results in frequent unit breakdowns," it stated.

Vedanta’s Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) is a supercritical 1,980 MW world-class thermal power plant at Banawala in Mansa district of Punjab and supplies 100 per cent of the electricity to Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd.