Coal

Seven Dead From Hot Water Accident at Power Plant in India

Seven workers have reportedly died from an April 20 incident at Adani Power’s coal-fired 4.6-GW Mundra power plant in Gujarat, India, that involved a pipeline hot water release.

The accident occurred at about 11:15 a.m. on April 20 as Unit 4, one of the ultra mega power plant’s nine 660-MW units, was being restarted after a two-day shutdown, police said. Adani Power reported that during the start up, when “some steam is normally allowed to vent,” hot water “splashed” from the vent of a flash tank.

Twenty-one workmen were injured by the incident, and at least 13 of them were moved to specialty hospitals for critical injuries, the company said.

On April 28, a week after the incident, Indian media reported that seven people had died as a result of the accident. One person died on the way to the Ahmedabad hospitals, and another six people reportedly died during treatment.

Police are investigating the incident. The company, meanwhile, said it is constituting a cross-functional team of experts to investigate the incident.

The Mundra thermal power plant was a POWER Top Plant in 2014.

Sonal Patel, associate editor (@POWERmagazine, @sonalcpatel)

 

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