HYDERABAD, May 20: A loss of Rs158.5757 million has been incurred due to non-generation of 600 megawatts of electricity in the wake of closure of three units of the Jamshoro thermal power house , a well-placed official told this correspondent on Thursday.

He said that the monetary loss had been carefully calculated as three units failed to generate 600MW electricity between May 15 and 20. Each of the three Chinese units produced 210MW electricity while the Japanese unit produced 250MW.

"At present 210MW units are producing only 180MW of electricity whereas the Japanese unit is generating 200MW" he said. The loss included expenditures on oil and lubricants and miscellaneous.

The source pointed out that it was the loss that had been incurred by the National Grid. Officials at the Jamshoro thermal power house recorded conductivity in water at 1,800 MS/CM (micro simen/centi metre square) on Thursday at 6:30am against its normal range of 300-350 MS/CM whereas hardness was recorded at 370 PPM (part par million) against required 80-100 PPM, the source said.

The officials intended to start closed units but it would certainly take 24 to 32 hours to meet the required parameters and specifications of heavy machines worth billions of rupees.

The power house authorities closed two units after taking permission from the National Power Control Centre, Islamabad whereas shut down was taken for one unit till May 21 for maintenance purpose.

The source said that it was not so easy to restart heavy machines because they needed to be warmed up before the start. The water conductivity will have to be checked again before using in the plant. The power house first noted rising conductivity in water at 700 MS/CM on April 23 which in the last two days stood at 3250 MS/CM.

"We informed the irrigation department on April 23 that conductivity of water has increased but no measures were taken by them". "The hardness and conductivity of water increased to a very high extent, leading to closure of units", he said.

The source said that in the next two days conductivity should be recorded at 700 or 740 MS/CM only then officials would be in a position to restart machines.