About 30% of NPCIL's generation capacity in south India not functioning

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd's 1,660 MW, or 28.71 per cent, capacity in south India out of its total generation capacity of 5,780 MW is not functioning, as per data gleaned from Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO).

Out of that, three units with a total generation capacity of 660 MW are expected to restart on November 14, POSOCO said.

Out of the three units, two belong to Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) and one to Kaiga Atomic Power Station (KAPS).

All the three units are of 220 MW capacity and are not functioning since November 9.

The two units of MAPS stopped generation due to tripping of evacuation lines, while turbine problem stopped the Kaiga unit.

On the other hand, the 1,000 MW unit at Kudankulam shutdown in June this year for annual maintenance is expected to restart on November 19, POSOCO said.

However, officials of NPCIL have been saying that the unit is expected to restart only in December this year or by end of November.

The Kudankulam unit has breached several restart deadlines after it was shut down for annual maintenance for 60 days.

The NPCIL is setting up two 1,000 MW Russian reactors at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district, 650 km from Chennai.

The first unit attained criticality, which is the beginning of the fission process, in July 2013.

Subsequently, it was connected to the southern grid in October 2013.

However, commercial power generation began only December 31, 2014.