THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There would be no ‘Chinese help’ for Kerala this summer for surviving the power crisis. Delays had plagued the commissioning of a 60 MW machine procured from China to replace a blown-up generator at the Moozhiyar Power House in Pathanamthitta district. KSEB officials said that this unit would be ready for operations only by June. As per the original schedule, it should have been ready this month, at the height of the summer, when every unit of electricity is counted.At present, only four generators of the six-machine power house of the 335 MW Sabarigiri hydel project, the state’s second biggest, are operational.“Snags in importing machine parts through Indian ports coupled with technical problems have contributed to the delays,” sources said.Officials attributed the delay solely to import problems. “There were hitches at the Mumbai port in bringing in some of the machine parts. All the equipment have arrived now and the assembly of the turbine is progressing,” KSEB member (generation and transmission operations) Mohammedali Rawther said.After full assembly, the machine has to be subjected to intensive trial runs before the green signal is given for starting operations.An explosion in 2008 crippled the power house and claimed three lives. One generator, unit no: IV, was totally destroyed and two others were damaged. KSEB has entered into a deal with the firm Puissance de L’eau for replacing the destroyed unit no: IV. Chinese firm Harbin (Kunming) Electrical Company has supplied the generator, turbine and other parts.Once the new 60 MW machine is operational, the installed capacity of Sabarigiri project would go up to 340 MW. But now, with only four units running, the maximum capacity is 280 MW.
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