UDAIPUR ,May 15(TIWN) : Tripura along with some other North-Eastern states residents may not be fortunate enough to watch TV for the latest updates of national politics after the declaration of the 16th Lok Sabha Poll results as the planned shutdown in OTPCs 726.6MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine(CCGT) Thermal Power Plant in Palatana will start from 10pm on Saturday.BHEL engineers and experts will begin the Performance Guarantee Test(PGT) of the First Unit(363.3MW) of the plant, said a very high level TIWN sources in the OTPC on Thursday.

 The sources add that though the PGT is officially scheduled to begin from 10pm on the 17th this month the actual occurrence may be delayed by half and hour or so. The PGT is scheduled to be continued upto 23rd of May, however it may end earlier in 3 to 4 days, depends on PGT progress and experts decision.

   To conduct the PGT a team of expert engineers of BHEL has already arrived in Palatana and OTPC too hired a Kolkata based consultancy agency Development Consultancy Private Limited (DCPL) which is competent and well experienced in conducting such types of tests in power plants across the country. National Power Grid (Bongaigaon) and North-Eastern Regional Load Despatch Committee(NERLDC) are in touch with the OTPC and BHEL officials ,said the TIWN source. Now it is clear that with the complete shut down in Palatana plant( which is absolutely essential during PGT) Tripura Assam Mizoram and other states are likely to be hit badly by severe power shortage.

   A few days back TIWN correspondent had a telephonic chat with Power Minister Manik Dey, who said , " State Govt and Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd. will try to buy as much power as possible to reduce the power shortage by 50% during the 7 days long PGT in Palatana. However, how much we will get will depend upon the availability of power in other states. Moreover, cost of buying the power from outside too has to be kept in mind." The Minister further told to TIWN that load shedding will be inevitable. It is to be noted that at present OTPC is generating 325-350 mw on average and out of it 325mw is supplied to the Power Grid( keeping 15-25mw intact for the internal auxiliary requirement of OTPC). Out of this Tripura is getting 75-92mw from the NERLDC as its share. And with the present Pick Hour demand of 247mw(approximately) state is undoubtedly going to suffer from power shortage.

   Performance Guarantee Test is conducted to test the longevity of the plant as well as capacity of handling pressure by various equipments like Gas Turbine, Steam Turbine, Gas Booster Compressors, a few sensitive equipments of Heat Recovery Steam Generator(HRSG) and others. During the PGT there will be complete shut down in the First Unit, said a BHEL engineer on Thursday night. Meanwhile it is learnt that the Commercial Generation from the Second Unit of the plant is likely to be delayed by a few months because Gas Purchase Agreement between ONGC and OTPC needs a modification regarding the quantity of gas supply. At presnt the 2nd Unit is ready for Commercial Generation (COG). An engineer said over phone that,  two and half months back due to the First Time Synchronization power was supplied to Power Grid for two days on a row- first from the Gas Turbine and the Combined Cycle Mode( when the Gas and Steam Turbine generate simultaneously) - on an experimental basis. But so far due to some official formalities the 72 hours non-stop trial run on full load(363.3mw) is yet to be completed. Without the completion of this trial run the 2nd Unit won't be declared ready for Commercial Generation.

   It is to be mentioned here that on 29th October 2005 the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh laid the Foundation Stone of this 726.6mw Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) Thermal Power Plant at Palatana known as ONGC Tripura Power Company(OTPC). On 21st June 2013 President of India Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Commercial Generation from the First Unit of this plant( the biggest of its kind in the entire Eastern Region.