Power demand soars, so do outages

LUCKNOW: Power crisis has returned to haunt the state yet again at a time when there is talk providing 24x7 electricity to cities and 18 hours to villages.

The UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) is finding it difficult to handle the summer demand. The state faces a peak power shortage of 1,000-2,000 MW these days, apart from prolonged outages everywhere because of local breakdowns, transformer burnout, bursting of underground cables and breaking of overhead wires. Sources said the corporation was resorting to two-five hours of rostering in cities and villages at night contrary to its announcement to exempt them from power cuts during the night. The state is witnessing an unprecedented demand this summer at more than 18,000 MW during peak hours. The existing arrangements are not able to meet the requirement. For example, the peak demand-supply gap was to the extent of 1025 MW on Sunday and it grew to 1815 MW on Monday night though came down to 1,000 MW Tuesday.

“We are trying our best to provide power as per the schedule but the growing peak demand has forced us to resort to some load shedding in the night,” said a senior official, adding the demand might further increase in the days to come.

Besides, people are often forced to go without electricity for hours in the day or night because ofbottlenecks in the distribution or transmission networks. “Our biggest challenge is that we are often not able to supply power which very much available, because of local breakdowns,” said another official.

UP IS WITNESSING AN UNPRECEDENTED DEMAND THIS SUMMER AT MORE THAN 18,000 MW DURING PEAK HOURS