Brahmapuram Diesel Power Plant is a 106.6 MW public sector

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

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run by the

Kerala State Electricity Board Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is an Indian public sector undertaking under the Government of Kerala that generates, transmits and distributes electricity in the state under government monopoly. Established in 1957, the agency comes und ...

, commissioned in 1997. It is controlled by Kerala load Distribution Center(KLDC).

Overview

The plant is based on large-bore 4 stroke diesel engines from MAN B&W, Germany. The plant has a total of five machines with capacity to generate 21.32 MW power each. Though the station is still known as diesel power plant, it has been using low sulphur heavy stock (LSHS) -- a residual fuel processed from indigenous crude, provided by IOC—in place of diesel. LSHS is in semisolid form. It is heated by steam to make it liquid form. When melts it becomes the same form of diesel. The transfer of diesel to LSHS is done by a three valve mechanism(first diesel, then a mixture of diesel and LSHS, then LSHS). *Number of Cylinders : 18 *Cylinder configuration : V type *Engine capacity : 18000 cc/cylinder *Engine power : 30,000 bhp *Fuel used : Diesel (for starting), LSHS(low sulphur heavy stock)

Electrical section

The engine is coupled with an

alternator An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.Gor ...

. The alternator consists of a stator and a rotor and the entire assembly is under one case. Switchgear of 220 kV, 25000 A is used to control the supply. Then the load is reduced to 11 kV for transmission, with the help of step down transformers It uses direct current for all its applications (easy to store). The cost of power production at the existing diesel plant at Brahmapuram is Rs. 13 per kWh, considering the cost the three machines are operated only when it is absolutely necessary. The power produced from here is connected to the KSEB grid and supplied to the consumers in the state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

Expansion

The Kerala State Electricity Board has decided to set up a 400MW combined cycle power generation facility on the premises of the existing power plant at Brahmapuram, using

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

as the feedstock.

GAIL Gail may refer to: People *Gail (given name), list of notable people with the given name Surname * Jean-Baptiste Gail (1755–1829), French Hellenist scholar * Max Gail (born 1943), American actor * Sophie Gail (1775–1819), French singer and ...

will be supplying LNG for the new power plant from the Petronet

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

Terminal. The power plant is likely to be completed by early 2017.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Power stations in Kochi Oil-fired power stations in India 1997 establishments in Kerala Energy infrastructure completed in 1997