PCL bid for additional power fails by 50 paise as UP faces power cuts

LUCKNOW: Faced with an unprecedented spurt in demand, the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited’s (UPPCL) plea to purchase additional power from the power exchange failed as the corporation’s R 4.50 per unit power bid fell short by 50 paise. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time for the UPPCL as the power demand crossed 16,000 megawatt from Wednesday midnight.

The power corporation was forced to make up by making unscheduled power cuts from two hours to four hours in district headquarters. Not just that, even urban centres like Meerut, Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Bareilly and Kanpur had to face power cuts ranging from one hour to more.

Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited had planned to meet the rising power demand by purchasing additional power at a reasonably high price of R 4.50 per unit but the bid fell short by 50 paise per unit. This compounded the problem. To be fair to the corporation, the UPPCL top brass had anticipated the spurt in demand during the peak summer months and inked a pact with some power surplus states like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and as Rajasthan.

But the additional power from these states will be available only from May 1.

The UPPCL officials admit that the prediction by the weatherman of significant rise in mercury in May and June is “worrying”, more so as the demand for additional power is likely to shoot up significantly at night in these peak summer months. By month end UP will start getting 500 mega watt power from Rajasthan. Another 400 mega watt is expected from Himachal Pradesh while Jammu and Kashmir is expected to pitch in with nearly 300 mega watts of power for UP.

UPPCL MD AP Mishra said additional 300 megawatt power would be purchased from private companies. Mishra said that efforts were also on to ensure that the state’s own production went up. The UPPCL is also confident of 1000 megawatt power from two units of Anpara D, 660 MW from Bara and 800 mega watt from Lalitpur. “Along with this we are hopeful of 200 mega watt from one of the other units of Anpara. By month end, four power units would begin production through which the state is expected to benefit by additional 575 megawatt power. Since we had started preparing for the summer demand early, we hope that we will be able to provide a relatively better summer experience to the people of the state this year,” Mishra said.

As of now, the power corporation claims that rural UP is being provided 15 hours of power supply while at the tehsil level, 17 hours of power supply is being given. Power corporation officials say that the district headquarters are getting 21 hours of supply while divisional levels are getting 23 hours of supply, Bundelkhand 21 hours and major cities a touch less than 24 hours. “This is about 20% more than what we were able to provide last year,” a UPPCL official said.