Shimla, July 5
The State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC) of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board, facing allegations of having asked the government-owned hydro-power projects to scale down generation on the day of the Mandi tragedy (June 8), has been given a clean chit in an inquiry conducted by a Chief Engineer.

The state government had on June 23 ordered the inquiry. Chief Engineer Neeraj Kapoor from Directorate of Energy submitted his report to Principal Secretary (Power) Sushil Negi on Saturday.

“The inquiry report was submitted to the government today. All necessary steps required to ensure proper coordination between the SLDC and Northern Region Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC) will be taken,” said Negi. The inquiry had been ordered to see if there was any lapse on SLDC’s part which led to excess discharge of water in the Beas on June 8. 24 students of a Hyderabad engineering students were washed away in the strong current near Thalot in Mandi district.

Sources said the exhaustive report, running in three volumes with several annexures, has clearly said there was no lapse on part of the SLDC and power project officials were asked to scale down generation to enforce grid discipline and save the state from paying heavy deviation penalty ranging from Rs 8-9 per unit.

The report gives details of all power projects — both private and government -owned —which were asked on June 8 to reduce generation as the storage capacity of the Northern Grid had hit the maximum limit of 49.4 Hz.