The day I totally forgot my machines.
From 25th midnight I have been in the control room of the Kukule Ganga Power Station to control the heavy inflow of water to the Kukule reservoir. During last six months it never exceeded 30 cubic meters per second due to the long drought. But, last night ending the long dry spell, run off rose to 200 cubic meters per second and that prompted me to appear in the control room at midnight as I felt I wouldn't get a chance to access it if I postponed it until the morning of next day. ( as flood waters can inundate all access routes to the power plant). The inflow remained constantly increasing and we had to open gate by gate as we had never done before.
The level of the reservoir had to be optimized as we had to consider both upstream floods as well as downstream floods. Meanwhile the control room was flooded with telephone calls from those who are in low lying areas as well as people in upstream valleys. Those who were in upstream wanted us to open the gates as much as we could and let the water level in upstream to drop as they found their furniture was floating by that time while those who were in downstream wanted us to hold water as much as we could as they were getting ready to get on to their roofs. While thinking of both parties it was my prime duty to protect the dam and avoid a catastrophe.
The inflow became higher and higher and by the wee hours on 26th, it rose to 800 cubic meters per second. Only in 2003 the inflow had reached this level in recent times according to our records. When the inflow increased further, I felt like I had butterflies in the stomach. I started referring to the manuals of flood water release with my two engineers as we did not want to take any chance. As per the instructions we opened the all four gates little by little. Making matters worse two generators tripped as the transmission line tripped due to a lightning strike.
We wanted to bring the machines back to operation as soon as possible to avoid energy loss. But our operators could not access the under ground power plant as the access route was impassable due to earth slips. They returned immediately as it was not safe outside. Then my two engineers took swift action to access the power house through the cable tunnel and started the machines again after resetting relevant protection relays. ( Kukule Ganga Power Station is unmanned and it is controlled from the control room located 4km away from it. ) By five in the morning we had raised four gates 4m, 5m, 5m and 4m respectively. The discharge read as 1300 cubic meters per second. ( this was extremely high as 1000 year flood of this dam had been estimated to be 2000 cubic meters per second)
When day broke, around 6.30 am we lost our communication link with the dam. However, we still managed to contact our people in the dam through mobile phones.
By 8.30am we lost all our communication with them. All our attempts to access the dam by vehicles were also futile due to earth slips on the way. I was really worried. But I had faith in my people and knew that they would continue to control the water even without my instructions as they had to continue the same gate oening pattern further. Meanwhile we found that nobody ( rest of the staff) can access the control room as the road from Molkawa is impassable at several places due to slips and floods. We had nothing to eat in the morning except some cookies. However, we managed to get a small boutique in the vicinity opened and purchased some dry rations.
Two operators soon made our breakfast. (rice, dhal curry and sambol). We then heard the flood waters had surrounded our quarters in Karawwa and that would cut off all supplies to us.The level of flood at Building Complex had hit the valance board of the security hut in no time. Our people cannot reach us for anything now. By now there is no big threat from inflow as the rain has ceased. But my only concern is the mountain which is just behind the control room. When looking at the earth slips occurred around this place, nobody can rule out possibility of happening a earth slip here too.
We have two alternatives. One is to leave the control room for safer grounds after shutting down the generators. The other option is to get to the under ground power house through the cable tunnel and continue to run the machines from there. But none can say it is safer either. However, we are still in the control room. Depending on the weather, I will make the best decision as I have a responsibility to save seven lives as well as our property. Now, it is 1.50 am on May 27. Even though we saved a lot of money to the nation in terms of electricity, the same water has claimed hundreds of lives and made thousands of people homeless.
I am sure many people will curse the Kukule Ganga Power Station not knowing real facts. Only few knows that we are innocent. We were doing everything possible to minimize the damage to the public and kept constant contacts with all relevant authorities like Disaster Management Center, Kalutara, near by police stations, divisional secretariats etc. Every half an hour water discharge from the dam was passed to the DMC, Kalutara so that they could alert the public in vulnerable areas. I forgot to mention that during last 24hrs ending at 6.00 am on 26th we had received a rainfall of 553mm at the dam. This is more than even one month’s rain. So, you can imagine the impact.
Chief Engineer,
Kukule Ganga Power Station
CEB
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...909149951.1073741829.571244950&type=3&theater
Read this machn. It's like a Hollywood movie.
From 25th midnight I have been in the control room of the Kukule Ganga Power Station to control the heavy inflow of water to the Kukule reservoir. During last six months it never exceeded 30 cubic meters per second due to the long drought. But, last night ending the long dry spell, run off rose to 200 cubic meters per second and that prompted me to appear in the control room at midnight as I felt I wouldn't get a chance to access it if I postponed it until the morning of next day. ( as flood waters can inundate all access routes to the power plant). The inflow remained constantly increasing and we had to open gate by gate as we had never done before.
The level of the reservoir had to be optimized as we had to consider both upstream floods as well as downstream floods. Meanwhile the control room was flooded with telephone calls from those who are in low lying areas as well as people in upstream valleys. Those who were in upstream wanted us to open the gates as much as we could and let the water level in upstream to drop as they found their furniture was floating by that time while those who were in downstream wanted us to hold water as much as we could as they were getting ready to get on to their roofs. While thinking of both parties it was my prime duty to protect the dam and avoid a catastrophe.
The inflow became higher and higher and by the wee hours on 26th, it rose to 800 cubic meters per second. Only in 2003 the inflow had reached this level in recent times according to our records. When the inflow increased further, I felt like I had butterflies in the stomach. I started referring to the manuals of flood water release with my two engineers as we did not want to take any chance. As per the instructions we opened the all four gates little by little. Making matters worse two generators tripped as the transmission line tripped due to a lightning strike.
We wanted to bring the machines back to operation as soon as possible to avoid energy loss. But our operators could not access the under ground power plant as the access route was impassable due to earth slips. They returned immediately as it was not safe outside. Then my two engineers took swift action to access the power house through the cable tunnel and started the machines again after resetting relevant protection relays. ( Kukule Ganga Power Station is unmanned and it is controlled from the control room located 4km away from it. ) By five in the morning we had raised four gates 4m, 5m, 5m and 4m respectively. The discharge read as 1300 cubic meters per second. ( this was extremely high as 1000 year flood of this dam had been estimated to be 2000 cubic meters per second)
When day broke, around 6.30 am we lost our communication link with the dam. However, we still managed to contact our people in the dam through mobile phones.
By 8.30am we lost all our communication with them. All our attempts to access the dam by vehicles were also futile due to earth slips on the way. I was really worried. But I had faith in my people and knew that they would continue to control the water even without my instructions as they had to continue the same gate oening pattern further. Meanwhile we found that nobody ( rest of the staff) can access the control room as the road from Molkawa is impassable at several places due to slips and floods. We had nothing to eat in the morning except some cookies. However, we managed to get a small boutique in the vicinity opened and purchased some dry rations.
Two operators soon made our breakfast. (rice, dhal curry and sambol). We then heard the flood waters had surrounded our quarters in Karawwa and that would cut off all supplies to us.The level of flood at Building Complex had hit the valance board of the security hut in no time. Our people cannot reach us for anything now. By now there is no big threat from inflow as the rain has ceased. But my only concern is the mountain which is just behind the control room. When looking at the earth slips occurred around this place, nobody can rule out possibility of happening a earth slip here too.
We have two alternatives. One is to leave the control room for safer grounds after shutting down the generators. The other option is to get to the under ground power house through the cable tunnel and continue to run the machines from there. But none can say it is safer either. However, we are still in the control room. Depending on the weather, I will make the best decision as I have a responsibility to save seven lives as well as our property. Now, it is 1.50 am on May 27. Even though we saved a lot of money to the nation in terms of electricity, the same water has claimed hundreds of lives and made thousands of people homeless.
I am sure many people will curse the Kukule Ganga Power Station not knowing real facts. Only few knows that we are innocent. We were doing everything possible to minimize the damage to the public and kept constant contacts with all relevant authorities like Disaster Management Center, Kalutara, near by police stations, divisional secretariats etc. Every half an hour water discharge from the dam was passed to the DMC, Kalutara so that they could alert the public in vulnerable areas. I forgot to mention that during last 24hrs ending at 6.00 am on 26th we had received a rainfall of 553mm at the dam. This is more than even one month’s rain. So, you can imagine the impact.
Chief Engineer,
Kukule Ganga Power Station
CEB
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...909149951.1073741829.571244950&type=3&theater
Read this machn. It's like a Hollywood movie.
