After being idle for six months owing to prolonged maintenance and an overhaul of the turbine generator, the first 1,000 MW VVER reactor of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, built with Russian assistance, got synchronised with the Southern Grid at 12.08 a.m. on Saturday.
The reactor was shut down on November 19, 2018.
KKNPP sources told The Hindu that inspection and maintenance of turbine bearings and journals and a overhaul of the turbine generator (TG) were planned during the shutdown.
The tasks were to be carried out indigenously by NPCIL through Indian contractors.
“Since the TG has been supplied by Russia, awarding of this contract to competent Indian contractors to carry out the maintenance and overhauling through the tendering process took considerable time.
Transportation of bearings to contractor’s site, refitting of bearings and transportation back to the site were time-consuming. Maintenance of TG journals needed special machines, which the contractor had to transport to the KKNPP site. Thus, the maintenance, overhauling and re-assembly of TG took time,” a source said.
Following the completion of maintenance activities on the TG, Unit-1 was synchronised to the grid past midnight on Friday.
Unit-2 is presently operating at around 580-600 MW.
