MANU/PIBU/1853/2021

Department/Board : Press Information Bureau

Date : 12.05.2021

Ministry of Power takes proactive measures to ensure 24x7 power supply to Oxygen plants in the country

In view of the pan India impact of the second wave of corona virus pandemic across the country and the manifold rise in oxygen demand for both medical facilities and for home treatment of patients, the Ministry of Power has undertaken a number of pro-active preventive and remedial measures to ensure that there is uninterrupted power supply to Oxygen Plants by the State Utilities. Ministry of Power is monitoring the power supply to 73 major identified Oxygen Plants across the country out of which 13 Oxygen Plants supply oxygen to NCR region. The proactive measures which have been put in place are :

i. Daily Review by Secretary, Power : The position of power supplies to all such plants is reviewed every day at the level of Secretary, Ministry of Power, along with the concerned Energy Secretaries of the States, CMD, POSOCO on a case by case basis. All issues related to 24x7 power supply to Oxygen Plants are discussed threadbare during the daily reviews and interventions are planned and executed in a time bound manner through the State Discoms aided by POSOCO and Central Electricity Authority.

ii. Round the Clock (RTC) operation of Control Room : As a part of corrective action strategy, a 24 hours oxygen plant control room (OPCR) and an Internal Control Group (ICG) has been set up at REC Limited which are tasked with maintaining liaison with the Oxygen plan nodal officers for ensuring 24X7 Power supply to these plants; and to ensure that interruptions, if any, are addressed on an immediate basis both on the DISCOM side as well as on the Plant's Electrical installation side. Disruptions, if any, in Power Supply are analysed by Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) together with various utilities in the states (STU & DISCOM), SLDCs and POWERGRID, and specific preventive advisories are issued.

iii. Preventive Measures for ensuring 24x7 Power Supply : As a part of preventive action, advisories have been issued to the States for best practices adoption to all electricity lines feeding the plants. This includes building of suitable redundancies, and isolation of feeders supplying electricity to the oxygen plants. Some of the corrective measures advised included resetting of relays at the Barotiwala plant (Himachal Pradesh) and Kerala Mineral & Metal plant (Kerala); and, laying of a 132kV underground cable for the oxygen plant at Salequi (Uttarakhand) in the stretch prone to bird fault.

iv. Technical Audit of Power Supply and Proactive implementation of Remedial Measures :