⚡Today i want to share my experience while i visited the UPCL plant in udupi near village of yellur karnataka and I would also like to share the details i got from the guide or an employee working there.
⚡Generally i went to UPCL with my classmates previous year that is in 2019.it was the wonderful experience visiting UPCL. As a student👨🦲 I had a lot of thoughts and doubts I wanted to clear after visiting the UPCL. The total capacity of UPCL is 1200MW.
⚡Firstly UPCL is a🌡️ thermal power plant 🌡️or we can also say it as the coal powered plant since the main material used is coal in order to generate electricity. It generally took a month for us to get the permission from the authority of UPCL to visit as well as to have a guide to explain about working of the power plant. The power plant is located in remote area or we can call it as a village in udupi and it is owned by the most popular company called as ADANI. Which also has power plant electricity production in many other countries like Australia, India etc. Here out of 100% energy generated 90% of the power is given and used by karnataka itself and the remaining 10% of the power is given to the state of punjab. Each steam turbine is of 3000 rpm, tandem compound, single re-heat, condensing type machine with extractions for regenerative feed water heating. The turbine would be designed for main stream pressure of 170 kg/cm2 (a) and inlet temperature of 537°C.
⚡The first thing guide told us was whenever an alarm was heard we need to be present at centre of plant that is generally during emergency conditions and the guide will tell us what steps we need to take during emergency. We all were also given safety helmets for protection. Since we went there in our own bus they insisted us to sit in the bus 🚌and guide will explain the working in each section or block in power plant. Even though we were not so happy about it but we agreed and our journey began.The site is about 28 M above MSL and falls under seismic zone III. The maximum ambient temperature is about 38°C and the annual mean relative humidity is 74-80%. The nearest seaport is at Mangalore (New Mangalore Port).UPCL generates two levels of power one is 220kv line and the other is 440kv line. Here, the 220kv line is given or is connected to kemar region where as the 440kv line is given to hassan which is some 180 kms from udupi or UPCL.
⚡First of all the🌍 environment, garden maintenance, surrounding was quite well so the first impression it created excited us a lot than we expected.
⚡In UPCL coal is imported from Indonesia 💯since if we use coal from India we may not get the proper output or the efficiency so its better use imported coal to get more efficiency. There was wagon or train track for transportation of coal from port since the coal is imported from Indonesia through a ship🚢🛥️⛴️🛳️ and then by train.
⚡There will be unloading system of coal is done by a simple mechanism and then it is travelled to next section by a conveyer. We got an opportunity to got inside the generator, boiler section but as we know its not a transparent mechanism to observe what is generally happening inside boiler so we just we inside by climbing steps, speaking, making fun of friends etc and at top section we took a photograph with s name labelled ADANI, that too only 1 picture since the guide did not allow us to take more pictures and we were also not allowed to take a photo from our smartphone inside the power plant as we already handed our smartphone to authority.
⚡After that we were taken to controlling section where we were allowed to see the members Checking boiler temperature🌡️ and working of entire power plant and since I'm a electrical student ⚡⚡I could gradually understand the statistics of how much power is being generated, and when we visited only 1 part or the section of power plant was working because during day time solar power plant, wind power, biomass, biogas, tidal, etc can be used to generate power so its not necessary to generate more power, and depending on demand we generate⚡ electricity. UPCL mainly provides electricity during peak hours that is during night times where the power generated by 🌬️wind, solar 🌞cannot be used to that extent to run through the whole🌜 night time.
⚡The water 🌊💧required for the power plant is obtained from the nearby sea and the sea water is not directly used by the power plant but instead a process called as desalination of sea water is generally done to remove salt content and make the water clean and pure before fedding it to the boiler.
⚡When the coal from the conveyer is fed into furnace, after the coal is burnt the remaining product is Ash. According to the guide, he said that the Ash is generally dumped into a chamber and UPCL has made an agreement with the cement manufacturing company like ACC, DALMIA etc and the Ash is taken by these companies which will use these Ash while preparing cement. As we know that in a cement 70% it consists of Ash and only remaining 30% it consists of some other chemicals in it.
⚡The water💧🌊 coming out if the turbine is fed to condenser and from condenser it moves on to the cooling tower. I think most of people think that gas or smoke coming out as a poisonous gas but in reality it is not poisonous gas but it is just when hot water is sent to the cooling tower, it may either have a fan or may not have a fan for cooling, that fumes we mistakenly say as poisonous gas. After the water is cooled down it is fed back to the boiler by means of pump and the interesting fact is that movement of water takes place underground. Many of us were curious that what mechanisms may be present inside the cooling tower, but for our surprise its nothing but empty and it is just the construction worker who architectecs the cooking tower for cooling of water.
⚡Here, we come to the end of our journey in UPCL plant. The one question that came to my mind is about the job opportunities in UPCL plant, since at one period of time i also wanted to experience as how it would be working in a power plant and surprisingly i could not get the valued answer by the guide. Overall it was a wonderful experience of visiting to a thermal based power plant.
⚡UPCL also has made achievements and also won several awards.
⚡The plant has latest Pollution Control Equipment, 275 Meter High Chimney, High Efficiency ESPs, Flue gas desulphurization plant, low NOx burners, etc. to limit the SPM, SOx, NOx emissions. Greenbelt is being developed in the main plant, the corridor leading to the ash pond and around the ash pond. About 3.29 lakh saplings have been planted in and around the plant.
⚡UPCL has bagged the following recognitions🏆 awards🏆in the industry:
- Gold Shield award🏆 for early completion of Thermal power project -Unit-1 from Ministry of power, Government of India for the year 2010-11.
- Sustainability and EHS 🏆Awards 2012 under the following category
- Certificate of Merit in Infrastructure /power Category –First place
- Certificate of Excellence in Large Scale Category – Third place
- Certificate of Commendations for its Meritorious Achievement
- National Energy Conservation 🏆Award 2013, Ministry of Power, Govt of India
- Best Safe Power Boiler🏅 Award 2013, Govt of Karnataka
- CII “4 STAR” Rating for EHS Practices for the year 2013
- First place in Infrastructure category in CII EHS 🏅Award 2013
- CII EHS Excellence🏅 Award 2012
- Best Fuel Efficient 🏅Award 2012, Govt of Karnataka
⚡The 1st Unit of 600 MW at UPCL was successfully tested and commissioned and commercial production commenced in November, 2010. The 2nd Unit of 600 MW was successfully tested and commissioned and commercial production was commenced in August 2012. It has also been awarded the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award in FY 2014-15.
⚡The fact that came to my mind in India 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳nowadays and in upcoming days the development and usage of renewable energy resources is given more important when compared to that of non-renewable energy resources. But we also need to remember that thermal based power plant gives a lot higher efficiency or the output when compared to that of solar, wind, tidal energy, ocean thermal energy etc.
⚡But the researchers are working on increasing the efficiency of renewable energy resources and also creating awareness in people regarding the usage of renewable energy resources like we could setup a biogas plant at home for ourselves.
⚡In previous blog I had spoke about solar energy in karnataka as well mainly I highlighted🌞 solar energy 🌞plantation in NMPT and MRPL and I would continue to just share my experience, knowledge, facts about all⚡⚡ electrical aspects i know to the more detailed extent as possible.
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