Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project’s (KNPP) second unit, which has a capacity of 1000 MW, went online on Monday, and is currently operating at 170 MW output.
With this, the atomic power generation of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) has crossed 5,000 MW.
Officials at KNPP said the second unit will be disconnected from the grid after four days for testing and will be reconnected a week later.
After clearances from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the power generation will be increased in stages. By November, the unit is expected to touch its full capacity of 1000 MW.
Currently, the unit has permission to operate up to 50% capacity. The second unit went critical on July 10, 2016.
The First Unit (1000 MW) of KNNPP was dedicated to the country early this month by the Prime Minister. The project saw substantial delay in commissioning due to local protest which has increased the cost manifold.
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KKNPP's original cost for Unit-I and II was estimated at around Rs 13,000 crore but was increased to Rs 22,000 crore due to delays in commissioning the project. The Indian Government signed a contract with the Soviet Union to build the plant in 1988, but construction started only in 1997 due to political and economic upheaval in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The construction of the first two units were later halted in September 2011 following protests by villagers, who are mainly fishermen around the plant. Work at the plant finally resumed in March 2012, after the intervention of State Government and initiative, mainly awareness creation, taken by the KKNPP to educate the villagers.
Power generation finally started on July 13, 2013.
From October 2013 to August 11, 2015 around 10,800 crore million units of power was produced from the Unit-I. He added, on July 10, Unit-II attained criticality, few tests reports were submitted and they have got cleared and now KKNPP has sought clearance for production, which may start end of this month.
For Unit-III and IV soil escalation started early this year, construction is expected to start in April 2017 from then it would take around 69 months to start production power in Unit-III. By 2022-2023, the power production would commence in these two units. Total project cost is estimated to be around Rs 39,000 crore, said Sundar.