SRPC urges Power Ministry to ensure availability of KKNPP units in summer
The Southern Regional Power Committee (SRPC) has written to Union Ministry of Power seeking the latter’s intervention in ensuring higher power generation availability from the two units of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) during the peak summer season.
The KKNPP’s two units have a capacity of 2,000 MW and Tamil Nadu has a share of 1,150 MW and remaining capacity is allocated to the other Southern States. Tamil Nadu has already been seeing a record high power demand this summer season.
Unit I of the KKNPP has been under outage for refuelling from January 29 and was expected to come on stream on April 16. However, the outage of the unit has been extended up to April 23 which is a matter of concern, K. Vijayanand, Chairperson, SRPC, pointed out in his letter to the Union Power Secretary.
He further pointed out at the SRPC meeting the beneficiaries in the Southern region had requested Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to operate Unit II on part load to ensure its availability till Mayend.
The NPCIL has informed that the shutdown of Unit II has been compressed to 65 days as against 75 days from May 11 to July 13.
However, the beneficiaries reiterated the request that the unit should be available till Mayend in view of high demand being faced in the Southern gion, the letter said.
The general elections are being held during the period from April to June and uninterrupted power supply needs to be ensured, it added.
It sought the Power Ministry’s intervention for early revival of Unit I and shut down of Unit II to be taken up from June. Tamil Nadu has the highest power demand among Southern States.
The Southern Region is expected to see a peak power demand of 68,00069,000 MW in MarchApril 2024. Tamil Nadu is expected to see a peak power demand of 21,000 MW. Tamil Nadu has already seen a new record high peak demand of 19,409 MW on March 22, surpassing the previous record of 19,387 MW set on April 20, 2023. re