Power plant staff to be given training

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 6. Asserting that imparting training to officials of power plants and electricity boards was crucial for the progress of this sector, the National Power Training Institute, Director General, Dr. B.S.K. Naidu, has rued that the State Electricity Boards, including the Delhi Vidyut Board, were reluctant to train its officials.

``The SEBs argue they are fund-starved and cannot afford to pay for training. But by doing so they forget that the cost of non- training is much higher than training,'' Dr. Naidu said at a press conference here recently.

Hundreds of crores of rupees can be saved by increasing efficiency of power plants, by imparting adequate training to officials.

Referring to the 500 MW training simulator facility at the Institute, he said according to some estimates its benefits were in the range of Rs. 2 lakhs per MW per year. ``In the Indian context, for the 70,000 MW generated by thermal plants, the annual savings could be as high as Rs 14,000 crores,'' Dr. Naidu said.

Importance of training could be gauged from the fact that the committee which went into the details of the near collapse of the Northern Grid on January 2 has recommended simulator training for system operators for better understanding and sharing of operational experience, he said. ``This incident had caused a generation loss of 15,000 MW and revenue loss of Rs. 500-600 crores,'' he added.

Giving details of the steps initiated by the Institute in training the power sector, Dr. Naidu said that besides launching a post-diploma course, fresh courses in MBA (Power) and B.Tech (Power) will start from this academic session.

One major feature has been the launching of a programme aimed at sensitising school students in power conservation. So far 26,782 students have been sensitised. ``It has been a laudable gigantic effort to have voluntarily worked towards a cause for developing the right kind of mindset on energy consciousness,'' he said.

Besides, the Institute has launched a number of programmes on live topics, including earthquake disaster management, future power systems and IT interventions and the power reform summit, he said.

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