Chandigarh, December 9
Power supply in the northern region has been adversely affected with the Northern Grid facing a shortage of 5000 Mega Watt (MW). As a result, Haryana has announced scheduled power cuts and a compulsory weekly off on industry, while Punjab is also resorting to scheduled power cuts.
With thermal power generation down by almost 670 MW in the Northern Grid, normal life has been thrown out of gear. Though agriculture is getting its scheduled supply of six to eight hours in both states, the urban domestic and industrial consumer is being forced to face power cuts. Today, Haryana announced a compulsory weekly off on industry, a 10-hour daily cut on industrial consumers, and seven-to-eight-hour cut on domestic consumers in the state. Punjab, too, is facing an erratic power supply. Power cuts have not been imposed on urban domestic consumers.
Officials say the power crisis is a result of the thermal power units at Rihand and Obra in Uttar Pradesh, Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat in Punjab, and Panipat and Faridabad in Haryana having stopped generation because of technical snag. As against an installed capacity of 31,000 MW, the Northern Grid was getting only 18,500 MW (off peak hours) to 21,000 MW (in peak hours) today (because hydro power is available in peak hours). With most of the industry shifting from their own captive power generation to regular power supply (because of the rising prices of diesel), and non-availability of interregional linkages to transfer power from power rich states to North India, has only added to the power crisis.
Sources in Haryana Power Utilities informed TNS that they were facing a shortage of 60 lakh to 70 lakh units (LUs) a day. As against a demand of 600 LUs, only 530 LUs was available today. Haryana had made bilateral arrangements to purchase power from the Punjab State Electricity Board (200 MW), Reliance (100 MW) and Tamil Nadu (100 MW for six hours a day).
However, because of the shutting down of Lehra Mohabbat thermal unit at Punjab, system constraints in Reliance and non-availability of corridor for supplying power from Tamil Nadu, has led to a power crisis. The state has now made arrangements to purchase 125 MW of power from Meghalaya and Tripura and 12 LUs from Delhi Transmission Limited. Today arrangements have been made to get 20 - 22 LUs of power from the gas based power plants of NTPC.
Similarly, Punjab has a daily demand of 800 LUs, and is able to maintain availability according to demand. Officials in Punjab State Electricity Board informed TNS that they are purchasing 18 LUs of power a day, in order to meet the growing demand.
