MoP Ensuring 24×7 Power Supply to Oxygen Plants in Country

The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has entered a critical phase , with 37,04,099 active cases, but hopes of the graph moving down finally. There has been a  surge in oxygen demand as cases have piled up. Now to ensure the 24×7 continuous power supply to the oxygen plants by the state utilities in the country, the Ministry of Power (MoP) has initiated several proactive preventive and remedial measures. 

The MoP is monitoring the power supply to 73 major identified Oxygen Plants across the country out of which 13 Oxygen Plants supply oxygen to the NCR region. The proactive measures which have been put in place include:

1. Daily Review by Secretary, Power: The MoP, along with the concerned Energy Secretaries of the States, CMD, Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) is reviewing the position of power supplies to all such plants at the level of Secretary, on a case by case basis. All issues are daily reviewed and interventions are planned and executed in a time-bound manner through the State Discoms aided by POSOCO and Central Electricity Authority.
2. Round the Clock (RTC) operation of Control Room: A 24 hours oxygen plant control room (OPCR) and an Internal Control Group (ICG) has been set up at REC Limited which are tasked with maintaining liaison with the Oxygen plan nodal officers for ensuring 24X7 Power supply to these plants; and to ensure that interruptions, if any, are addressed on an immediate basis both on the DISCOM side as well as on the Plant’s Electrical installation side. Disruptions, if any, in Power Supply are analyzed by Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) together with various utilities in the states (STU & DISCOM), SLDCs, and POWERGRID, and specific preventive advisories are issued.
3. Preventive Measures for ensuring 24×7 Power Supply: Advisories have been issued to the States for best practices adoption to all electricity lines feeding the plants. This includes 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 (Kerala); and, laying of a 132kV underground cable for the oxygen plant at Salequi (Uttarakhand) in the stretch prone to bird fault.

Technical Audit of Power Supply and Proactive implementation of Remedial Measures :

•  POSOCO has also been carrying out a technical audit of the power supply of each Oxygen plant particularly those supplying oxygen to NCR. The audit includes assessing the nature of the power supply, the source(s) of the power supply, availability of alternative arrangements, relay settings, etc. 13 plants that are supplying oxygen to the Delhi & NCR region have been audited so far. 
• The MoP has written to State Governments of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh pointing out the remedial measures, based on technical audit reports. A 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. However, the technical audit of the rest of the plants is likely to be completed in the next 7 days.