Power restored at 120-mw Bhawa project

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 27

The HP State Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEBL) restored power supply to the fire-ravaged 120-mw power project of the Sanjay Vidyut Pariyojna after five days. The Board will hire a team of engineers from Switzerland to assess the damage to the gas-insulated multi-crore switchyard of the project.

On the other hand, the magisterial inquiry ordered by the Kinnaur DC into the fire incident has been delayed due to two holidays in between. But sub-divisional officer Bhawa Nagar, who has been made the inquiry officer in the case, has sought replies on queries sent to the Board and would submit the report in a couple of days, officials said.

The HPSEBL’s high-level team of engineers headed by Chief Engineer, Generation, BM Sood, remained clueless on the fate of the switchyard, which was burning at 70°C temperature for more than three days after the fire burnt the 10-mv transformer on January 22.

The machinery of the underground switchyard was imported from Switzerland, when the project was commissioned in 1989. The Board has no expertise in ascertaining the damage to the switch gear by the fire, engineers said. The Board has restored power supply to the carbon-sprayed powerhouse ravaged by fire that burnt the 10-mv transformer that contained 20,000 litre oil on January 22.

The cables and wires were burnt and the power inside the powerhouse has been restored temporarily, they said.

The Board was losing 1 lakh units of electricity worth Rs 3 lakh everyday, since January 22 when the powerhouse was shut down as soon as the fire broke out due to the blast in the Germany-made bush of the transformer.

The cost of the bush is nearly Rs15 lakh, while the transformer which was reconditioned on January 18 costs Rs1.5 crore, engineers said. Managing director, HPSEBL Pratap Negi said they would hire Swiss experts to study the damage to the switchyard and assess the exact damage to the powerhouse.