UDAIPUR April 13 (TIWN) : Performance Guarantee Test(PGT) of the First Unit(363.3 MW) of OTPC's 726.6MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) Thermal Power Plant in Palatana will commence from 17 th May midnight, confirmed a high level sources in the OTPC. The PGT will continue upto 23rd of May leading to a severe shortage of power supply in the state as well as in some other states in the north-eastern region. Performance Guarantee Test(PGT) is a must for such type of mega power plant. "PGT is a must for testing the vulnerability and longivity of the plant as well the equipments and machineries used in a power plant," said an OTPC engineer to TIWN .

 It is conducted before the commercial generation but the OTPC under tremendous pressure from Govt of Tripura did not conduct the PGT before the Commercial Generation(COG) began on 21st June 2013 when President of India Pranab Mukharjee inaugurated the COG from the first unit of Palatana plant calling it to be, " World's largest and country's first Green Plant."

 He said that North-Eastern Regional Load Despatch Committee (NERLDC) has given its consent to conduct the PGT from 17th midnight to 23rd midnight this month. With the PGT likely starting from 17th May Tripura is going to be hit by severe power shortage. At present Tripura's pick hour demand is 247 MW. But Tripura's internal generation(excluding OTPC)  is 102MW . OTPC is generating 350 mw ; out of which 325-339mw is suppli to Power Grid (Bonaigaon). OTPC is keeoing 15-20mw for its own internal auxiliary requirements. NERLDC in turn provides Tripura its share of 92-100 MW depending on the availability.  

   It is now obvious that Tripura and some other North Eastern states are like to suffer from acute power cut for seven days when the PGT will be conducted. It is to be mentioned that earlier the PGT of OTPC's first unit was scheduled to be held from 27th April to 3rd May. But on request from the Chief Ministers of different states namely Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram, NERLDC, Power Grid and OTPC cancelled the scheduled PGT in view of the tremendous heatwave going on at that time. Now with heavy downpour for a couple of days weather conditions slightly improved and keeping this in mind NERLDC Power Grid and OTPC have decided to start the PGT and on Tuesday evening the  clearnce for PGT was given to OTPC.  The engineers of BHEL and OTPC are now busy in last moments preparation. It is learnt that a team of six expert engineers of BHEL will arrive Palatana by 14th May to supervise the PGT.

   In this connection TIWN correspondent had a telephonic chat with Power Minister Manik Dey, who told TIWN over phone," State Govt and Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited(TSECL) are in touch with other states to buy power from outside to cope with the power crisis likely to hit badly from 17th or 18th midning owing to OTPC's shut down of first unit for PGT. However, at this moment it is not confirmed how much power we can buy. Presently power is selling at excessively high rate in other parts and much depends on the negotiation on rate per unit. " The Minister further said " State Govt is fully aware of the ongoing situation." He said that TSECL will try to buy as much power from out side so as to reduce the power shotage to 50% at least. Manik Dey warned that it is obvious that load shedding will occure frequently to cope with the situation. He said such huge crisis can not be solved overnight. He said that not only Tripura but other N-E sates like Assam and Mizoram too will suffer heavily when they won't get their share of power from OTPC due to the shutdown for PGT.   

     Meanwhile the 2nd Unit of OTPC too is now fully ready for power generation. On Saturday afternoon an  OTPC engineer told TIWN correspondent , " Plant is fully ready for commercial generation. But ONGC is yet to give its consent for supplying gas without any stopage and more importantly particles free. The 3rd Gas Booster Compressor, which was sent to BHEL's manufacturing unit in Hyderabad for repair , arrived in Palatana on 2nd May. " He said that the Gas Booster Compressor has alrady been installed and it will be kept in Stand by mode. However, he said that the Commercial Generation (COG) may be delayed by a period of three-four months. Before the COG there will be a 72 hours non-stop full loaded(363.3 MW) trial run of the 2nd unit as it was done before the COG of the first unit as well.  If the trial run succeds, the BHEL engineers will declare the plant ready for full fledged(726.6mw) Commercial Generation,adds TIWN sources over phone.