Proactive steps taken to ensure 24x7 power supply to oxygen plants: Govt

So far, 13 plants that are supplying oxygen to Delhi-NCR have been audited. Based on the technical audit reports, the Ministry of Power has written to state governments of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh pointing out the remedial measures which need to be taken by the respective state utilities to ensure uninterrupted power supply.

The power ministry on Wednesday said it has taken proactive measures to ensure 24X7 power supply to oxygen plants in the country amid the deadly second wave of the pandemic.

The ministry is monitoring the power supply to 73 major identified oxygen plants across the country out of which 13 plants supply oxygen to NCR, it said in a statement.

Given the manifold rise in oxygen demand for both medical facilities and home treatment of patients, the ministry has undertaken some proactive preventive and remedial measures to ensure uninterrupted power supply to oxygen plants by the state utilities said.

The position of power supplies to all such plants is reviewed every day at the level of Power Secretary along with the Energy Secretaries of states concerned; CMD, POSOCO on a case by case basis. All issues related to 24x7 power supply to oxygen plants are discussed threadbare during the daily reviews and interventions are planned and executed in a time-bound manner through the state discoms aided by Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) and Central Electricity Authority, the ministry statement said.

The ministry has also set up the clock Control Room.

As part of the corrective action strategy, a 24-hour oxygen plant control room and an Internal Control Group have been set up at REC Ltd.

Disruptions, if any, in the power supply are analyzed by POSOCO together with various utilities in states (STU & DISCOM), SLDCs (state load dispatch centers), and POWERGRID, and specific preventive advisories are issued, it added. The ministry also takes preventive measures for ensuring a 24x7 power supply.

As part of preventive action, advisories have been issued to states for best practices adoption to all electricity lines feeding the plants. These include the building of suitable redundancies, and isolation of feeders supplying electricity to the oxygen plants. Some of the corrective measures advised included resetting of relays at the Barotiwala plant (Himachal Pradesh) and Kerala Mineral & Metal plant; and, laying of a 132kV underground cable for the oxygen plant at Salequi (Uttarakhand) in the stretch prone to bird fault.

POSOCO has also been tasked with carrying out a technical audit of the power supply of each oxygen plant particularly those supplying oxygen to NCR, it said.

The audit includes assessing the nature of the power supply, the sources of power supply, availability of alternative arrangements, relay settings, etc. The audit reports further include both short-term measures to improve the power supply along with long-term measures. So far, 13 plants that are supplying oxygen to Delhi-NCR have been audited.

Based on the technical audit reports, the Ministry of Power has written to state governments of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh pointing out the remedial measures which need to be taken by the respective state utilities to ensure uninterrupted power supply. The letter has also been written to DVC for carrying out maintenance of its sub-stations supplying power to the oxygen plants within its jurisdiction.

Further, additional 20 plants have been audited and the technical audit results are being shared with the respective state governments for urgent necessary action. The technical audit of the rest of the plants is likely to be completed in the next 7 days.

These manifold strategies have helped in ensuring that oxygen plants produce oxygen to their fullest capacities, without losing invaluable production hours, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)