Record production by Nathpa Jhakri of 2415 Mln units

New Delhi, July 3 (UNI) The 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri hydro electric project today said that it has generated a record 2415 million units of electricity surpassing the target of 2230 million units during the quarter April-June 2006, but the generation went down on a year on year basis.

Executed by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, the project transmits power to northern Indian states of Delhi, Rajasthan, UP, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttranchal and Chandigarh and has generated 300 million units more than last year.

Chairman and Managing Director H K Sharma said the project which started generation in September 2003 has already produced about 12800 million units of electricity.

However, during the year 2005-06 the generation was only 2055 million units while during 2004-05 it was 5108 million units, Mr Sharma said.

The spurt in power generation in the April-June period was due to the improved plant operations in accordance with the flow and silt levels of river Satluj. The project has the world's largest desilting complex to exclude sediments above 0.2 mm to enter the turbines.

Also, the flow in river Satluj recorded a gradual increase in the first week of May resulting in the full operations of all the six units. During the quarter, on certain days the flow has been as low as 200 cubic meters leading to truncated operations of the generating units, while during increased flow levels generation upto 1550 MW against the installed capacity of 1500 MW had also been achieved, Mr Sharma said.

After the commissioning and operations of the 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Project, the Satluj Vidyut Nigam Ltd has taken up implementation of six more hydel projects in Himachal Pradesh and Uttranchal.

UNI RT DKS RAI1839