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The TVNL unit in Lalpania functioned on Wednesday, but power supply was cut short by a glitch in Biharsharif
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Ranchi, Aug. 8: Industries cried foul and residents of 14 out of the 24 districts went without power for the second day today as faults in transmission lines in neighbouring Bihar prevented generating stations from supplying electricity to various parts of Jharkhand.
“We are ruined. Every 5 minutes, the power goes off. Over the past 24 hours power supply has been so erratic that production at 12,000 small and medium scale industries in the state have been completely disrupted,” Arun Khemka, president of Jharkhand Small Scale Industries Association told The Telegraph.
A continuous blackout for hours together does not affect the production process since industries can switch over to their generator sets. In such cases, the costs go up marginally. However, if power goes off every 15 minutes, industries are ruined as it disrupts the entire production chain due to frequent change-overs to and from generator sets.
Power supplies in 14 of the 24 districts of the state were disrupted since August 7 after unit of Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd (TVNL) at Lalpania in Bokaro district had to be shut down following a tube leakage in its boiler unit.
The TVNL snag led to widespread blackouts throughout the command areas of Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) as total generation fell to 220MW against a normal demand of over 850MW.
Although the TVNL unit was lit up today, power supply had to be curtailed as the transmission lines that link it to the rest of the state run through Biharsharif where there was a snag.
“Both our units are generating more than 400MW. However, export of this power has been disrupted following snags in the transmission lines in the Biharsharif section in Bihar. Due this we are unable to supply all the power being generated from TVNL,” Ramavtar Sahu, TVNL general manager, told The Telegraph over the phone from Lalpania.
Problems have been compounded after three units at Patratu Thermal were also forced to shut down due to technical snags.
Figures released by Eastern Load Despatch Centre indicated that generation in Jharkhand remained restricted to 210MW. Though efforts were on to draw as much as 350MW from the central pool, the demand-supply deficit of over 350MW left JSEB with no option but to resort to blackouts throughout Ranchi, Gumla, Lohardaga, Khunti, Simdega, West Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharsawan, Latehar, Chatra, Garhwa and Palamau districts.
Residents in these districts complained that they had power barely for a maximum of 4 to 6 hours over the past 24 hours.
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