State drawing more power to meet crisis

BHUBANESWAR: With little improvement in the power situation, the State is forced to draw more power from the eastern region electricity board (EREB) than the actual daily schedule to meet the crisis situation.Power trading utility of the State Gridco has been drawing more than 500 MW from EREB than the daily allocation from the Central pool.The trading utility has to pay more than ` 5 per unit of power it overdrew from the EREB.The State has drawn more than 1,100 MW of power from the EREB as against the day’s scheduled of 550 MW.This became necessary as the State is facing an average shortage of about 700 MW while the deficit in the evening peak hour is more than 1,000 MW.Restriction imposed by the Water Resources Department on the release of water from reservoirs has further aggravated the situation.As availability of hydro power is less than 250 MW, the State has to depend more on the captive generating plants (CGPs).The CGPs are consistently supplying more than 600 MW of power to the State to tide over the crisis.The State thermal generating stations are supplying about 700 MW of power after resumption of normal supply from the two units of the OPGC’s Ib thermal power stations.The two units have been showing problems during the last one week.Authoritative sources in Gridco said that efforts are on to source power from outside agencies.Since all the thermal power generating stations are facing the common problem of coal shortage, all the regions of the country are facing power crisis.The State Government has taken up the matter of coal shortage with the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and the central PSU has assured improved coal supply to all the thermal power stations, the sources said.The Centre is yet to respond to the State Government request for additional allocation of 500 MW from the Central pool.With neighbouring Andhra Pradesh facing power crisis due to Telangana imbroglio, this has a cascading effect on other regions too, the sources maintained