State grapples with acute power shortage
LUCKNOW: Electricity supply in the state appears to have gone off track in the state with cities and villages facing massive power cuts even at night.
The crisis has added to the government’s worries as it punctures the claims of giving round the clock power.
Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) officials held a meeting on Saturday to explore how to avoid rostering at night, as suggested by chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday. They, however, did not find it possible to do that unless the demand-supply gap narrowed down.
According to sources, the demand these days is hovering around 20,000 mw during peak hours (night) against the peak availability of around 16,500 mw. This leaves the state with a shortfall of 3000-5000 mw.
“This leaves us with no option but resort to emergency rostering in the night,” said an official, adding:
“We will have to resort to some rostering in the night even if we have no demand-supply gap since the grid’s capacity is down.”
The current crisis, which is likely to continue for some days, has arisen because of a shutdown of various power units both in the public and private sectors in the state and curtailment of the Centre’s power quota coupled with spurt in demand due to drought-like conditions.
The major cities are getting power for 23 hours, districts 17 hours, tehsils 16 hours and villages 14 hours as per the official roster though in reality the hours of load shedding are even more.
After he got complaints from various sources, the CM summoned energy department officials to his office on Friday, asking them to avoid rostering betweeen 7pm and 5am, both in cities and villages.
Energy minister Shrikant Sharma reiterated the same instructions at a meeting on Saturday evening.
He also reviewed preparations for the power for all programme.
The minister asked officials to achieve all the targets as per the schedule without compromising on quality.