Black-out at Nalco’s Captive Power Plant affects its Aluminium production

The 1200-MW capacity Captive Power Plant of Nalco in Angul has failed several times for the last few days, causing a blackout situation and the supply of electricity is highly interrupted, as all the eight units malfunctioned. 

The Navratna CPSE Company under Ministry of Mines, Government of India, has reported that its production of aluminium has been affected. At least 80 pots of the Nalco's smelter plant here have gone down as power supplies from its captive power plant (CPP) and the State grid have been disrupted owing to technical failures.

Nalco has a total of 960 pots. Electricity failure during the last few days has raised many question marks on the Nalco's power backup system.

The potlines consist of 4 lines with 240 pots in each. It is calculated that approximately 11 tonnes of molten aluminium could not be extracted in a day due to the potlines failure. Meanwhile, the Citizens Action Forum demanded stringent action against the company management for poor maintenance, which caused a huge loss.

Sreedhar Patra, CMD, Nalco, admitted blackout and said, “Electronic things have no guarantee. Now, due to team efforts, pots are operational.”

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