Though power generation commenced at the Jurala hydro electric project on Saturday, switching on the hydel stations at Srisailam would require huge inflows into the reservoir which is doubtful in the current situation.
The delay in generation at Srisailam is mainly because of two reasons- one, the outflow from the Priyadarshani Jurala project is not adequate and two, there are legal complications for the release of water essential for power generation.
Discharge at Indira Priyadrashini Jurala Project was 40,000 cubic feet per second (cusec) on Saturday. The outflow from the project varied from time to time. At noon on Sunday, the inflows into the project were 69,814 cusec and the water levels in the project stood at 317.70 metres against full reservoir level (FRL) of 318.5 mts.
Being the first inflow into Srisailam, water released from Jurala project is expected to reach in 24 hours- by early hours of Monday. If the outflows are steady, it will take 10 to 12 hours for the subsequent inflows to reach Srisailam project, which is around 100 km downstream of Jurala.
But considering the receding water inflows in Almatti, the inflows to Narayanapur dam, which is at a higher ground than Jurala, is also expected to comedown, which means that outflow from Jurala will be limited. Given this situation, steady inflows into Srisailam seem doubtful.
As of today, the water level in Srisailam project stands at 798.7 feet against FRL of 885 feet. “We can not release water downstream, as there is not enough water. Also, there is a high court stay on the release of water till the level reaches 854 feet in the project,” AE of Srisailam project Sudheer Babu said.
The high court directions were given in response to the petition filed by former planning commission member Vidyasagar Rao and TRS MLA Jupalli Krishna Rao.
Srisailam project, which had 874.8 feet against a FRL of 885 feet, is facing the worst scenario this year. Officials said since the height of Almatti dam increased, Srisailam has not been receiving waters of first floods. Erratic monsoon conditions have only made the matters worse.
Because of the court order, engineers at Srisailam cannot release the water downstream for generation of power till the prescribed water levels are reached or HC stay gets vacated.
On the right bank of Srisailam project, there are 7 power units with a capacity of 110 mw each. It needs 5000 cusecs of water for each unit to operate. According to experts, a steady inflow at the rate of 11,500 cusec for 24 hours will ensure one thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water for the project. At the present rate of discharge, increasing of the water level seems impossible.
The present crisis in Srisailam is also attributed to increased power generation during the Telangana agitation, when there was a shortage of coal supply to thermal power units.
Experts are of the opinion that even if there are good rains upstream and steady inflows, reaching optimum levels of power production are doubtful due to the delay.
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