Odisha says ‘No’ to costlier power from central pool

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
New Delhi, Sep 13:

Despite facing an acute crisis in power generation, Odisha is unwilling to buy power from Central pool at higher rates.

In a written proposal to the Central government last week, the state government has actually sought to return or reduce its drawal of power available to it from Central power projects even as the power crisis was assuming alarming proportions in the state.

Sources said not only Odisha, the governments of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Rajasthan have also made similar proposals to the Central government.

It may be mentioned here that Odisha gets 769 megawatts (MW) of power as its share from central power generation utility, National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC).

Delhi gets 2255 MW, Himachal Pradesh 62.01 MW, Meghalaya 53 MW, Sikkim 9.91 MW and Rajasthan 9.75 MW as their share of power from NTPC respectively.

Since Central power projects are located in these states in order to meet the power demands of these states, power is supplied to them from the Central pool as per agreement.

Per unit cost of power being very high, states have proposed the Centre against buying power from the Central power utility.