NHPC Pushes Back Completion of Parbati-III Project by Six Months

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (New Delhi, India)--NHPC Limited (BSE:533098) (Faridabad, Haryana), India's state-owned hydroelectric enterprise, has again deferred the commissioning schedule for its Parbati-III Hydroelectric Project (HEP) by another six months. The 520-megawatt (MW) project, which previously was slated to be on-stream by March 2013 and is being developed in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, is now likely to be fully operational by September 2013.

According to NHPC, a delay in the acquisition of land for the dam, as well as a delay in the awarding of the electro-mechanical (E&M) contract and finalization vendor for the erection of the E&M component, is the major reason for the stalled completion of the project. Since inception, the project has been mired by frequent strikes, work stoppages by local residents, and poor geological conditions in the Himalayan terrains, which have affected the construction schedule of the head race tunnel (HRT).

On the brighter side, all civil work has been completed. About 70% of the overall E&M work has been completed, including the assembly of the rotors in the service bay, while assembly of the turbine is in progress. In the hydro-mechanical segment, the erection of steel liner inside pressure shafts has been completed, and the erection of the gantry and guide rails of surge shaft is under way.

Parbati-III HEP is a run-of-river scheme that envisages diversion of the tail race release from the Parbati Stage II powerhouse, as well as inflows from the Sainj River. The project involves construction of a 43-meter-high, rock-filled dam; a 7.8-kilometer-long, horseshoe-shaped HRT of 7.25-meter diameter; a 147-meter-long, restricted-orifice type surge shaft; two 510-meter and 460-meter-long pressure shafts, each with a diameter of 4.5 meters; and a 2.7-kilometer-long tail race tunnel of 8.1 meters in diameter.

An underground powerhouse has been constructed to install four vertical-axis Francis turbine units, which each have a 130-MW capacity. The plant is expected to afford an annual energy generation of 1,963 million units, assuming a 90% performance.

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