CHENNAI: After working continuously since January 18, unit 1 of Kudankulam nuclear power project has tripped due to problems in sea-water flow. This means a loss of 563MW coming in from the plant. Coupled with this, a private power plant in Tuticorin with a capacity of 600MW has also stopped generation. This puts power generation back by nearly 1,000MW in the state. Saturday’s trip did not lead to power cuts because weekend demand is typically lower. But Monday could see some power cuts especially in the morning.At Kudankulam, sea water is used to cool and condense the steam-water mixture that generates power – and is several steps removed from the nuclear reactor. Officials say they suspect a hardware problem, likely a malfunctioning of a seawater inlet filter, and hope to rectify it quickly. “Due to the flow problem the reactor had to be shut down. Technically it is called a hot shutdown and we are confident of resuming generation by Wednesday,” site director R S Sundar told TOI.The good news is that the wind season has started and is adding around 500MW. But this typically comes in during afternoons so the shortfall in thermal power may mean that peak morning demand will not be met from Monday. The saving grace is that the Tuticorin plant is set to restart on Monday evening and at least 200MW to 300MW will be added to the grid before the plant reaches full capacity. “Meeting morning demand starting Monday will be tricky and we hope to get power from thermal plants with smaller capacities to prevent power cuts,” said a TNEB official.Kudankulam director Sundar said the unit has been continuously producing power for four months now and that the present break in generation is unexpected. Though plant officials are confident of re-starting the unit by Wednesday, past experience with Unit 1 shows the outage may extend further, said a former official of Nuclear Power Corporation who didn’t wish to be named.Even if the Tuticorin private thermal plant re-starts, TNEB may only be able to supply 12,500MW whereas the peak demand is around 13,000MW. The wind power season starts May 15 every year when more than 3,000MW is added to the grid on an average. But this year, wind generation started on May 1 and at times has even reached 1,000MW.Kudankulam trips, power cuts may hit TN.