Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Power Plant remains shut

Shimla, Aug 3 (UNI) Power generation in the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri remained suspended for the eleventh day today with the silt level in the reservoir continuing to remain high, a company official said today.

''Today, the silt level in the reservoir jumped to 17,000 parts per million (ppm) from 13,000 ppm recorded yesterday, forcing the project authorities to keep the plant shut,'' he told UNI over the telephone here.

The plant was closed on July 24 last month after the silt level in the reservior climbed up to 12,000 ppm as against a permissible limit of 4,000 ppm, hours after it restarted power generation following its closure for flushing out silt in the reservoir on July 22.

The spokesman said the power generation would resume as soon as the silt level falls below 4,000 ppm in the reserviour, adding that plant turbines would be damaged if they were continued to run after the silt level crossed the permissible limit.

The water discharge in the reservior was also high at 1,550 cusecs as against a normal discharge of 500 to 600 cusecs and higher than 1,271 ppm recorded yesterday, he said.

He, however, refused to give the estimated losses to the company due to non-generation of power during the period.

The 1500 MW Nathpa-Jhakri has six units of 250 MW each, which generate about 36 million unit of power per day.

The spokesman said the Centre was also considering a proposal to construct a dam at Khab, which would be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 5,000 crore, to solve the problem of high silt level in the hydropower projects on the Sutlej River.

The plant also remained closed for three days on July 10, 11, and 12, causing a loss of Rs 25 crore to Centre and the State, which has 25 per cent stake in the plant.

UNI AS HS PR VV1641