The commissioning of the second unit of Barh Super Thermal Power Station has been delayed owing to problems during the trial run at the plant.

According to sources, the second unit (Unit V) was run at its full load in April but tube leaks were found at a number of joints during the trial of the second unit of 660MW.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) was engaged in the construction of two units of 660MW at Barh under Stage II. As part of an agreement, BHEL was supposed to repair and rectify problem of tube leaks, which an official said was quite a normal thing.

"BHEL is looking for an agency to repair the leaks. The agency would require a month's time to fix the leaks in the boiler tube," a source said.

"The leaks have delayed the commissioning of the plant but we hope to complete the repair work at the earliest to commission the second unit of the plant by July-end," the source added.

The plant's (second unit) was successfully synchronised with eastern region grid on March 1, 2015. It was ready to be declared fit for commercial generation anytime in April-end or May but now it had been delayed.

Had the plant been commissioned at the right time, the state would have got another 429MW in its kitty from power generated from the second unit of NTPC's Barh plant.

Bihar gets 429MW from the first unit of 660MW plant at Barh that was declared commercially operational by Union power minister Piyush Goyal on November 15, 2014. During the synchronisation process, which started on March 1, 2015, the plant achieved full-load capacity.

"The second unit of 660MW of Barh achieved its full-load capacity. "Our plant worked excellently. The plant achieved 707.8MW on the evening of March 4, which is far beyond its capacity," an official said. After the completion of the synchronisation, the installed capacity of Barh plant increased to 1,320MW from Stage II.

The commissioning of the second unit of 660MW would have helped the power deficient state, which is still dependent on central sector allocation to meet its energy requirement, inching towards chief minister Nitish Kumar's promise to bring substantial improvement in the power sector.

Nitish had categorically declared in his 2012 Independence Day speech that he would not seek votes in the Assembly elections if he failed to improve the energy supply.

The state's peak demand is 3,500MW against which the state has been drawing around 2,800-3,000MW on an average throughout May and June.