At a time when the hydropower sector is in doldrums in Uttarakhand, the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC) India Ltd has commissioned the first unit of its 400-Mw Koteshwar hydel project.
“The first unit (100 Mw) of Koteshwar Hydro Electric Project(KHEP 4x100Mw) is commissioned and is synchronised with the northern grid. With this THDC has contributed 100 Mw of additional power in the 11th Plan,” said J P Dhaundiyal, the spokesman of the THDC.
He said the commissioning also bears significance as the project power house got submerged in September last year due to floods. After facing the subsequent blockage in diversion tunnel on December 17, the THDC succeeded in overcoming the crisis and was able to commission the first unit shortly.
After dewatering the power house, all necessary civil and other works were taken up on the war footing. All essential works like the mechanical spinning of the first unit got accomplished on January 31. Then subsequent to testing and commissioning works, the machine of the first unit was synchronised with the grid, Dhaundiyal said.
The Koteshwar dam is being built with a revised cost estimate of Rs 2,466.9 crore.
THDC, a joint venture between the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government, is already generating peaking power from the first unit (1,000 Mw) of 2,400 Mw Tehri hydel project, commissioned in 2006-07. The Koteshwar dam, which is part of Tehri dam, has been built 22 km downstream of Bhagirathi river in Tehri district of Uttarakhand.