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Power units join hands to set up testing lab

NEW DELHI: Four Central public sector undertakings — National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) — on Saturday signed an agreement to set up a high power testing laboratory for testing equipment as per world standards.

All the four companies would form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for creating an online high power short circuit testing facility. The project, the brainchild of former Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh, has finally taken off after months of planning.

The four companies will now form a joint venture company with an initial investment of Rs. 200 crore. Out of this, Rs. 83 crore would be contributed equally by all the four and the balance could be in the form of loan by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC). This is considered a major step towards availability of the transformer testing process as at present all transformers beyond 400 kV go to Holland and Italy for testing.

To be located somewhere in the eastern region, as it has the maximum fault rate for transformers, this will also establish the first online high power short circuit testing facility or laboratory. The new company would award a contract to the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) to professionally operate and maintain the online high power test laboratory for short circuit testing facility for ten year initially. The joint venture will be incorporated as a private limited company with an authorised share capital of Rs. 10 crore.

The joint venture agreement was signed by A. K. Chatterjee, Director (Technical) of DVC, N. K. Sharma, Executive Director of NTPC, R. S. Mina, Executive Director of NHPC, and H. L. Tayal, Executive Director of Power Grid Corporation.

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