Power plant in forest area

 Power plant in forest area

                            Srisailam hydroelectric power plant

On 20 August 2020, a major fire broke out in late night hours, in an underground hydroelectric power plant in Srisailam in the state of Telangana. The fire blaze killed 9 people, including 5 engineers and 15 employees who were inside the power plant escaped since the fire broke out. It was suspected that the fire broke out due to a short circuit situated at Srisailam's dam left bank. The fire had been brought under control by the firefighters after several hours of struggle as of 21 August 2020 and the rescue operations were delayed for hours due to the smoke. The bodies of nine workers were recovered during the rescue operations.

The Srisailam Dam is constructed across the Krishna River in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh near Srisailam temple town and is the 2nd largest capacity working hydroelectric station in the country.

The dam was constructed in a deep gorge in the Nallamala Hills in between Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts, 300 m (980 ft) above sea level. It is 512 m (1,680 ft) long, 145 metres (476 ft) maximum height and has 12 radial crest gates. It has a reservoir of 616 square kilometres (238 sq mi). Project has an estimated live capacity to hold 178.74 Tmcft at its full reservoir level of 885 feet (270 m) MSL. The minimum draw down level (MDDL) of the reservoir is at 705 feet (215 m) MSL from its river sluice gates and corresponding dead storage is 3.42 Tmcft.^[5] The left bank underground power station houses 6 × 150 megawatts (200,000 hp) reversible Francis-pump turbines for pumped-storage operation (each Turbine can pump 200 cumecs) and the right bank semi under ground power station houses 7 × 110 megawatts (150,000 hp) Francis-turbine generators.

Tail pond dam /weir located 14 km downstream of Srisailam dam is under advanced stage of construction to hold the water released by the hydro turbines and later pump back into the Srisailam reservoir by operating the turbines in pump mode. The weir portion got breached in November 2015 unable to withstand the normal water release from the hydro power stations. Tail pond weir was completed during the year 2017 and pumping mode operation is being done even the downstream Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir water level is below 531.5 feet (162 m) MSL. The tail pond has nearly 1 tmcft live storage capacity.

Srisailam Dam
Power Station
Operator(s)	APGENCO
Turbines	6 × 150 MW (200,000 hp) reversible Francis-type (left bank) plant operator = APGENCO 7 × 110 MW (150,000 hp) Francis type (right bank)
Installed capacity	1,670 MW (2,240,000 hp)