6th unit of Srisailam Left Bank station to be ready next year

Internal panel report on fire mishap yet to be approved

It was exactly a year ago that the 6×150 megawatt Srisailam Left Bank Hydro Electric Station went into flames that started with a spark in the panel board of the fourth unit, leaving the power project out of service in the middle of the flood season when hydel generation takes place in full capacity. Taking the incident, which left nine persons dead, including seven employees and two of a contract agency, and leaving the unit out of service, in its stride, the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Ltd (TS Genco) had put back into service five of the six units with minimal costs in a phased manner from the last week of October 2020. “Setting aside doubts over the revival of the power station with speculation of huge losses running into thousands of crores, the engineers of TS Genco in association with private partners (material suppliers) could revive two units (1 and 2) in just two months after the incident. Two more units (5 and 6) were brought back into service in the next three months before the pandemic affecting the remaining work,” director (hydel) of the power utility Ch. Venkata Rajam told The Hindu.