Telangana: “Back down” of power plants resulting in drop in Plant Load Factor

Due to increase in solar power generation during the day, the thermal plants have been back-down more in the State.

Hyderabad: The production of electricity in State government run thermal power stations in the State has reportedly dropped by 12 percent in the first half of the current financial year (2024-25) as compared to last year.

As per the norms set by the union Power Ministry, the Plant Load Factor (PLF) of the installed power generation capacity of each plant should be at least 85 percent, whereas the current PLF of thermal plants in the State stood at 66.29 percent, which is much less than the benchmark fixed by the the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

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According to power officials, the PLF has come down as the power plants were being stopped at some point every day in the name of “back down”. This is the first time in four years that PLF has been recorded so low, the officials added. Stopping production due to insufficient demand is called “back down”.

The main reasons for low PLF were forced outages due to various technical problems, poor planning in execution of works pertaining to capital overhauling which resulted in prolonged shutdown of plants and Backing Down Instructions (BDIs) of Units due to their higher variable cost, the officials pointed out.

Sources say due to increase in solar power generation during the day, the thermal plants have been back-down more in the State. Besides the availability of power at lower prices in the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), was also forcing the power plant to cut down production leading to reduction in PLF. The Discoms are opting for cheaper power available at IEX than the power supplied by the GENCO. Another reason for decline in PLF in power plants is the delay in resolving technical issues quickly, the sources added.

According to sources, due to failure of the Generation Transformer (GT) in the 270 MW unit of Bhadradri Thermal Plant, the PLF in this plant came down to 60 percent. Similarly, the PLF of one of the 500 MW Kakatiya Thermal Power Station in Bhupalpally came down to 59.93 percent due to delay in repairs. Kothagudem Thermal Power Station’s fifth stage plant PLF came down to 57 percent, the lowest in the State due to technical reasons.