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Tiloth Power Plant (3X30 MW)

The power plant is a Run-of-River scheme and utilizes the water diverted from river Bhagirathi upstream of Uttarkashi into a HRT 8.6 km long with 4.75 m diameter. The project was commissioned in 1984. The surface power house is located near the city of Uttarkashi housing 3 units of 30 MW each with Francis turbines. The Power Station's Design Energy is 395 MU with a design head of 147.5 m.

Photograph of Power House
                
The Tiloth power station is a medium head scheme with a design discharge of 71.4 cum. The project has unique challenges in operation due to high silt contents in the river during monsoon and major initiatives of life enhancement of runners and under water parts exposed to silt erosion have been taken up viz. Plasma coating, Ceramic tile coating etc. The generation is hampered during high silt content period in the river and more so in the monsoon. 
 
The generation has improved since 2000 in spite of the fact that the silt content goes up during monsoon when the discharge is maximum for generation.                 

The plants downtime has reduced and the breakdown hours reduced considerably in 2004-05 by 88% in comparison to 2003-04. The Power station recorded highest generation in a year of 488.52 MW in the year 2003-04. 
The improvements have been possible due to the number of maintenance management and safety measures under taken besides setting up a silt content monitoring and plant operation system for optimum utilization of the water resources during the monsoon. The inventory management besides the maintenance and operations management are the key to the rise in generation.

UJVNL is in the process of approaching the KfW line of Credit from Germany for undertaking major M&U works in the power station estimated to cost Rs. 50 crore. The major M&U works proposed are:- 

i) Provision of Micro-processor based Governors, Static excitation equipments, On-line monitoring equipment, Replacement of Generator winding with F Class insulation.

ii) Modernization of Communication, Test & Control, Protection & Instrumentation, switchyard equipment, hydro mechanical equipment, Trash cleaning arrangement etc. 

iii) Arrangement of upgraded, modified and improved runners.

iv) Improvement in the efficiency of Generators and Turbines.

The generation post completion of M&U works would increase to 520 MU and the M&U is expected to be completed by 2011.