Power department clarifies to reports

 Power department has clarified that the motor at M/s BMA Liquid Air’s oxygen plant here got burnt on May 23 evening due to non-stop operation, and not due to any power issue

In a report to the chief engineer (D&R), Dimapur electrical division executive engineer Er. Imsenkaba also held the inability of the management in handling in-house electrical system responsible for the power outage at the oxygen plant. Mentioning that he and other senior officials from head office, Kohima had visited the plant on the evening of May 22 following some complaints, he said they had found that the problems were purely created by the inability of the plant’s management to operate in-house electrical system like tap-changer in distribution transformer, etc. 

However, he claimed that the department officials assisted in rectifying the internal problems in the interest of work, even though these were beyond the scope of the department. And, as apprehended, the motor got burnt on May 23 evening due to non-stop operation, and not due to any power issue, he said. Whereas, the proprietor admitted that the motor got damaged due to continuous use to meet ever-increasing demand for oxygen, Imsenkaba expressed surprise at the reports in various media outlets that the plant’s motor got damaged due to erratic power supply.

“We are not certain whether this is due to wrong reporting by the media houses or they were wrongly fed by the proprietor of M/s BMA oxygen plant,” he added. 

The report pointed out that the plant had an installed capacity of 11/0.4 KV, 250 KVA DT, but the capacity of compressor motor was a single 150 KW induction motor without back-up or standby unit.

Mentioning that the plant had no technician to handle or operate the power system, the report claimed that the plant’s existing power set-up was also very primitive with no critical components like voltage regulator, capacitor bank and protective system (apart from Kit-Kat and DO fuse), etc.

Even the back-up DG set was non-functional, it added.

Imsenkaba further stated that he along with DC Dimapur, R Soundararajan had also visited the plant on the night of May 20, during which power availability to the plant was 22-23 hours per day and the proprietor was found to be running the plant almost continuously for those hours. 

Since, he had only a single motor, the executive engineer claimed to have advised him to take breaks, otherwise the motor would burn out. Further, during a departmental inspection of 33/11 KV, 10 MVA referral sub-station on the morning of May 22, he said the proprietor was advised to take breaks in running the motor, otherwise it would burn out. 

Noting that the power department was supplying power 22-23 hours every day to the plant, the proprietor was nonetheless still advised to be ready to operate his DG set for at least 2 or 3 hours in a day, if required, instead of depending 100% on the grid supply, which at times got interrupted due to rains, storms or other line faults.  

And in case of any major problems, Imsenkaba said he had also advised the proprietor to inform and coordinate with executive engineer (electrical) Dimapur and Chümoukedima.