BHUBANESWAR: With no sign of improvement in the power situation, the State Government on Monday imposed Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003 on the captive generating plants (CGPs) for maximising their power generation. “The Government directed all the CGPs to generate power at full exportable capacity and inject power to the State grid after their captive consumption to tide over the situation,” a notification of the Energy department said. After the imposition of Section 11, CGPs, exporting power through open access system, will supply their surplus power to the State, which is facing a shortage of over 700 MW. The decision to invoke Section 11 of Electricity Act was taken by the Government after reviewing the power situation of the State at a high level meeting here chaired by Minister of State for Energy Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak. Reservoir level at Balimela, Indravati and Upper Kolab has been low due to inadequate rainfall in southern parts of the State. Power generation is expected to go down by 1,600 million unit during the water year 2011-12 ending June 30, 2012, the notification said. “This sharp reduction in the availability of hydro power has caused serious deficit situation in the power availability in the State,” the Government said. The State has 18 CGPs, with an installed capacity of 2,668 MW. On an average, the CGPs are supplying more than 600 MW of power to the State. The Government expects another 200 MW from the CGPs after the imposition of Section 11. The Government is seriously contemplating to exercise its power by imposing the Act on independent power producers (IPPs) in view of the crisis situation. State power trading utility Gridco has started negotiation with Vedanta for additional 150 MW of power from the second unit of Sterlites Energy. The IPP of Vedanta has already dedicated the first unit with 600 MW capacity at Jharsuguda to the State. The Government has also requested Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) and Jindal Steel Limited (JSL) to supply power from their new units. JSPL is all set to commission a unit of 125 MW capacity plant shortly. With 500 MW unit of NTPC’s Kaniha thermal power plant under annual maintenance, the Government has requested the national thermal power major to operationalise the unit in the first week of December. The NTPC unit is on scheduled maintenance till December 15. Gridco is also trying to get power through power banking system from NTPC’s Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited, sources said.
Comments
0 comment