Power cut to continue in Odisha for next few days

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jul 8, 2014 at 9:32 PM Updated On : Jul 9, 2014 at 1:29 AM

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, July 8:

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Unscheduled power cut will continue in Odisha for the next few days as Gridco Ltd, the bulk power supplier, has started regulating power supplies to distribution companies (discoms) in the aftermath of a steep fall in generation from thermal power producer NTPC and hydro power projects in the state.

Though the state PSU has not officially announced the timing for power cut, Gridco has instructed the discoms to put in place a 30 minute to 1 hour power cut throughout the day.

Energy secretary PK Jena, who is in Delhi today, told OST over phone that the disruption in power supply was caused by the failure of three units of NTPC and TTPS to generate their share of power.

The situation arose following a heavy drop in generation at NTPC-run thermal power stations while the absence of normal rains affected power generation from the hydro power plants in the state. Two units of NTPC Kaniha and one unit of the TTPS Talcher stopped working today due to technical glitch.

The other units of NTPC situated outside Odisha have also reported failure of several units due to technical problems.

The state gets a share of 1523 MW of power from NTPC-operated units of Odisha and neighbouring states. Currently, it is getting only around 900 MW from the leading producer of thermal power in the country.

While the state needs 3000 MW during peak hours, the generation is only 2550 MW forcing Gridco to go for power cut to adjust the demand and supply gap, said PK Pradhan, director (Commerce), Gridco.

However, the power trader has not informed the discoms about the schedule of power cut.

“We have not received any information on the schedule for power cut. We have been informed that there would be power cut for about an hour for some days,” said an official of Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu).

The other three discoms, owned and operated by Reliance Infra, said as the situation is short-term, they have not issued any power cut guidelines.