The State of Karnataka Power Corporation (KPC) in India has announced proposals to renovate and modernise all its hydro units. The uprating programme is expected to add another 244MW to the 2600MW of power currently available from the 15 hydro units in the state.
The programme will commence in June 1999 and be completed by 2002. The corporation plans to secure the necessary finance from the Power Finance Corporation, which lends funds to generating companies at a concessionary rate for modernisation projects.
KPC plans to create a master control facility at Bangalore for all the hydro units, which will allow KPC to control the units remotely, depending on demand. A residual life assessment is to be done on all hydro units slated for uprating. After the residual life assessment, parts will be replaced with modern components.