NTPC's 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station exceeds all generation targets

NTPC's 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station has achieved a record power generation of 3,225 million units against the design capacity of 3054 million units during the financial year 2016-17, which is more than 5 per cent above the design energy, said Sanjeev Kishore, Group General Manager of the power station. The Group General Manager informed that 2016-17 was the first full year of operations of the power plant.

Sanjeev Kishore said that the power plant had thus surpassed all the targets of generation. The plant, he added, had also surpassed the normative declared capacity of 90 per cent by achieving 106.42 per cent with annual PLF of 46 per cent which was nearly 2 per cent more than the design PLF.

The financial year 2016-17, Sanjeev Kishore informed, was a year of laudable achievements on many fronts like achieving the highest monthly generation of 641.02 million units during the month of August 2016, and highest daily generation of 20.86 million units on 17 June, 2016.

The surpassing of Declared Capacity by 110.10 per cent during May 2016, Kishore said, was highest in the country's hydro power sector.

Similarly, the achievement of 107.27 per cent of Plant Load Factor (PLF), achieved in July 2016, he added, was also the highest among the central and state sector power stations in the country.

Sanjeev Kishore attributes the achievements in front of power generation to the efficient machine and water management affected by engineers of the power station. Talking about the annual maintenance of the machines, he informed that inspection of all the machines had already been completed successfully between 4 to 5 days for each machine against the target of 10 days.

With a head of 138 meter, the machines, the Group General Manager told required a flow of 750 cumecs of water while presently the flow in river Satluj was about 118 cumecs (Cubic Meter per Second) on an average which is on an increasing trend with the onset of summer. As per requirement of the grid and schedules given by the Northern Region Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC), the power plant, he informed was presently being operated between 6.15 hrs to 7.45 hrs and 18.15 hrs to 20.30 hrs.

The 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station, Sanjeev Kishore informed, was the first hydro power venture of the country's largest power producer NTPC Limited. He added that the Maharatna NTPC had crossed the mark of 50,000 MW and the installed capacity was 50,498 MW. The company, he told, was operating as many as 19 coal-based power stations 7 gas-based power stations and one hydro power station in the country. It has also launched as many as 10 renewable energy projects to harness solar energy with an aggregated capacity of 620 MW. The company is also operating 9 power plants under joint venture and subsidiaries, he said. NTPC has also ventured in the field of Wind Power generation as well as Solar Power generation in view of the government of India's ambitious plan of promoting New & Renewable Sources of energy in the country.

The Koldam Hydro Power Plant, Sanjeev Kishore, informed, was meeting the energy needs of the northern region states viz, Himachal, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand, where power is being distributed as per the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with these states.

The state of Himachal Pradesh, Sanjeev Kishore added was also getting 13 per cent of power generated which includes 12 percent power as royalty and 1 percent for Local Area Development Fund.