Power cuts to be the new normal in Odisha

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 11:

With lack of sufficient water in the reservoirs of Odisha, the State Government today announced one to three hours of scheduled power cuts all over the state.

Power cut

As per sources while Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri will witness an hour-long scheduled power cut in a day, other urban areas across the state will experience at least two hours of power cut. The worst, however, is reserved for rural areas, where unscheduled power cuts, over and above the scheduled ones, are frequent and last much longer.

“We have to go for load shedding in view of the declining water level in major reservoirs. The water level in Indravati dam has fallen by 50 per cent while it declined to 40 per cent in Balimela and Upper Kolab,” said Odisha Energy secretary Suresh Mohapatra explaining the government move.

“The availability from thermal sector in the state has also declined as some units of NTPC and TTPS are under maintenance. The distribution companies will soon announce the time and duration of power cuts in their respective regions,” he added.

It may be noted that the state consumes about 3500 MW of electricity a day and the demand exceeds 4000 MW during peak hours. The state, however, is facing shortages of about 500 MW of power due to various reasons. Apart from NTPC and TTPS, the hydro power generation in the state has come down by as much as 400 MW.

The state government has asked bulk power trader GRIDCO to intimate the distribution companies on the imminent power shortage so that the discoms can restrict power supply at different feeders.

Acting on the orders, CESU (Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha Ltd) has already announced its plan to go for a phase-wise power restriction from 6 am to 11 pm.

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