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Chibro Power Plant (4x60MW)

The Power Station is a Run-of-River scheme with an underground power plant. The underground power plant was the first station in the north India and was commissioned in the year 1975. The power station draws water from Ichari dam located on the river Tons, one of the major tributary of river Yamuna.                  

The Chibro power station is a unique engineering marvel in the country and was the first experience in carrying out tunneling in the Himalayan Thrust Zones, which is a challenge due to varied rock structure and strength and throws up unexpected challenges in the tunneling effort. The water from Ichari dam is fed into the power station through a 6.2 km long Head Race Tunnel (HRT) and the power plant comprising 4 units of 60 MW each with Francis turbines of 84,000 HP output is housed in a rock cavern with the major challenge of maintaining fresh air and safety measures due to constraint in space. The Power Station's Design Energy is 750 MU with a design head of 110 m.                  

The power plant has shown significant improvements since 2000 and the generation has gone up in spite of restriction imposed by Irrigation Department on the discharge in the tunnel and low hydrology in the year 2004-05.
                           
There has been a restriction imposed by the Irrigation Department in limiting the discharge in the HRT to 200 cumecs as against the earlier capacity of 225 cumecs. The plants downtime has reduced and the availability has improved significantly.                

The increase in the efficiency and availability has been possible due to the number of maintenance and safety measures under taken which were pending since long time. The APDP also provided funds for the modernization in a limited way mainly for installation of
 
(i) Static Excitation System 
(ii) Microprocessor based governors and 
(iii) SF6 Breakers
(iv) Major overhauling of Unit-2 
(v) Modernisation of Communication System
(vi)Tandem control System

The major maintenance works undertaken in the plant that have been responsible for improved performance are:-

i)  Repairing of MIV.
ii) Monitoring of head loss.
iii) Reduction in the Break down losses.

UJVNL is now proposing to take up major Modernisation and Uprating (M&U) initiatives in the plant and proposes to obtain a KfW line of Credit from Germany for financing the proposal estimated to cost Rs. 160 crore. The major M&U works proposed are:- 

i) Modernization of Trash Rack cleaning equipment at Ichari dam. 

ii) Modernisation of Communication, Test & Control, Protection & Instrumentation, fire
    Protection equipment, switchyard equipment, hydro mechanical equipment etc. 

iii) Improvement in efficiencies of Turbines and generators.
 
iv) Replacement of old 220kV oil filled cables with new XLP cables

v) Replacement of Stators' cores 

vi) Fire fighting system 
  
vii) Fresh Air Ventilation System

The M&U works would enhance the life of power plant by another 20-25 years besides improvement in efficiency of turbines and generators. The post M&U generation is expected to increase to 830 MU and the M&U is expected to be completed by 2011.