CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s first supercritical thermal power plant — 800 MW North Chennai Stage III — has been under a forced outage for over seven weeks since September 23 after power generation was halted due to “boiler tube leakage.”

On March 7 this year, Chief Minister MK Stalin inaugurated the NCTPS Stage III project, which has since started trial generations. Yet to commence commercial operations, it achieved full load capacity of 800 MW on June 27.

The supercritical power plant was expected to undergo 72 hours of continuous operation to reach commercial operation declaration (COD). However, the five-month-old hit the brakes on September 23 due to a boiler tube leakage and has been kept out of generation.

Sources in the power plant said that the supercritical unit has been kept out of generation due to less demand and some pending issues in the unit are also being attended to.

After restarting the generation, the plant would be readied for 72 hours of continuous operation to achieve the COD, sources added.

The supercritical thermal power project was initially planned to be commissioned by July 2019 but was delayed for various reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NCTPS III construction was taken up under two packages - Boiler, Turbine and Generator package by BHEL and the balance of plant (BOP) package by the BGRESL.

Even though the BHEL has completed its work, the BGRESL delayed its part of the work, a Tangedco official said. “BGRESL stopped all the works from February 2, and Tangedco disbursed the balance essential works to other contractors,” the official said, adding that Tangedco has redeemed the bank guarantee given by the BGRESL.

North Chennai Thermal Power Plant Stage III generation from March to October: