Power crisis deepens

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State is reeling from power crisis, the drastic fall in the State’s share from the Central pool has further aggravated the situation. The State’s share from the Central sector has been reduced to 530 MW against a normal schedule of over 800 MW earlier. And the drastic cut from the State’s share is primarily because of supply of 800 MW of power from the eastern region grid to the power-starved Andhra Pradesh. The silence of the State to this discriminatory policy of the Centre has baffled many. The State Government is yet to register its protest with the Centre even though it has been deprived of its due for more than a month.  Following a request from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh directed supply of about 800 MW from the eastern grid during 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. and 200 MW from Haryana’s Jhajjar power plant round the clock. The news was widely published in major national dailies on October 4. This has also been reported in the latest edition of Powerline magazine. But the State Government is yet to react to the step-motherly treatment to the people of the State. As the power crisis deepens, the State Government decided to write to the Union Power Ministry for additional allocation of 500 MW which it surrendered earlier. A formal letter to the Centre demanding the additional allocation of power could not be drafted due to the absence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Energy Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak who is busy  campaigning for the party candidate at Umerkote. While the power situation continues to be grim, one of the two units  of OPGC’s Ib thermal power stations has remained out of the State grid. The second unit of the thermal plant hit a technical snag on Tuesday. It resumed power supply on Wednesday morning. However, it again developed a snag in the afternoon.  The distribution utilities have been advised to go for more load shedding due to shortage of about 1,000 MW during the evening peak hours. The captive generating plants (CGPs) have been supplying 440 MW as against 600 MW on Tuesday.