Turbine blades of 600 MW Khedar unit damaged

31 May, 2012

The failure of turbine blades at Khedar thermal unit after Yamuna Nagar thermal units has raised the basic question of quality of cheap Chinese equipment.

HARYANA SUFFERED another major setback on power front after it was discovered that the turbine blades of 600 MW Khedar thermal units has been damaged.

The performance of Reliance built Chinese make thermal units has come under scanner after the failure of its turbines at Yamuna Nagar and Khedar thermal plants. Both units at 600 MW Yamuna Nagar thermal are under long shutdowns after turbine blades failures. The rotor of turbine of unit 1 is under repair at the works of Siemens at Baroda and unit is expected to start working only in November after 14 months. The turbine blades of second unit were found damaged when unit tripped on March 31 and unit cannot be expected to function before June end.

According to sources now the turbine blades of 600 MW thermal unit 1 at Khedar have been found damaged and HPGCL engineers have observed that even the foundation of Unit 1 is in a twisted condition. This is a serious development as the defect of a twisted foundation of Turbine is rare/unheard of. This unit was commissioned in August 2010 and was to undergo performance guarantee test.

Padamjit Singh, Chairman All India Power Engineers Federation said that the incident of defect in turbine foundation has added a new dimension to the quality and reliability aspects of Reliance/Shanghai working, and it deserves to be treated as a problem of national dimensions.

Singh said that it appears that a “sealing strip” inside the turbine became loose or broke loose and affected the turbine blades. About 100 blades of the turbine have been reported as dented/damaged. The turbine alignment is out by a huge margin of 2 mm, level of turbine bearing pedestals is out and catenary is disturbed.

Both units of super critical plant at 1320 MW Jhajjar are not producing any power. One unit is under shutdown for general maintenance from May 11 while other unit is down due to coal shortage. The unit 4 at Panipat thermal is down due to boiler leakage.

Haryana is facing a power shortage of over 257 lakh units daily while supply in state is restricted to 1035 lakh units. People are facing a minimum of 8 hours shortage in cities and power position in villages is even worse. The villagers hardly get power for few hours.

The power cuts in state are set to increase from present minimum 8 hour after power supply for paddy is ensured after June 10.The power demand/ shortage is will rise by another 300 lakh units. The state has been over drawing more than 110 lakh units daily on frequency based rates.

There is no incentive for HPGCL engineers to improve the performance of units. Even the existing bonus for last three years has not been announced so for.