Balco designs plan to reduce power generation loss by constant coal flow

Project has been implemented at firm's 540-Mw captive power plant that feeds Balco's aluminium unit in Chhattisgarh's Korba district

Vedanta-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco) has taken up an innovative project to maintain power generation and reduce the under injection losses. An abrupt change in coal flow in the feeders caused a sudden load variation and furthered these losses. 

The project has been implemented in the company’s 540-Mw captive power plant that feeds Balco’s aluminium facility located in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district. The continuous supply of coal flow plays a crucial role in power generation as its variation directly affects the generation of power.

For the continuous generation of power, uninterrupted coal flow in mills through coal feeders is inevitable. During the rainy season, coal absorbs moisture and develops a sticky consistency that adheres to the mouth of bunker and gets choked. The bunker feeds the coal to the mills and the sudden reduction leads to power generation loss and in extreme cases trips the units due to failure.

According to company officials, the innovation team analysed the problem and identified that there was no proper indication for coal flow variation in the distributed control system (DCS). This was identified as the root cause of the problem.

The team started working on the project and devised the plan to provide high and emergency priority alarms in the DCS with colour and sound variation. After implementation of the plan, the company has benefitted in many accounts that include cost saving and maintain the export schedule.

The project has bagged a gold in the International Convention on Quality Control Circles (ICQCC 2017) held in Manila, Philippines last month.