Patna, May 3: Short supply from the central sector continues to affect power availability in Bihar even after several units at Farakka and Barh super thermal power plants are functioning after a gap of more than a week. Low generation of power from both plants had hit supply to the state since April 26.

State energy department officials said four units of National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC's) plant at Farakka, which were shut down last week owing to water shortage in the feeder canal, started functioning from Monday. However, the plant's power generation continues to remain low because of reduced water supply.

Officials claimed the April 26 boiler tube leakage in Unit 5 at the Barh plant has also been repaired but power generation is still low due to coal feeding issues. Besides, power generation from Unit 4 at the plant has also gone down because of short supply of coal.

As a result of the Barh and Farakka plants' power generation sagging, the central power supply in the state stood at 2,274MW on Tuesday against the maximum allocation of 3,003MW. Last week, when four units of the Farakka plant and one unit at Barh were shut down, central power supply in the state was around 1,600MW.

Bihar, which requires around 4,000MW power daily, also gets 100MW from the Kanti thermal power unit and buys another 1,010MW from the open market for which short- and long-term agreements have been signed with different power producers.

"On Tuesday, we were able to supply 3,464MW power in the state," said H.R. Pandey, deputy general manager, public relations, Bihar State Power Holding Corporation. "The supply from the central sector was comparatively low owing to reduced power generation at Farakka and Barh. However, we were able to meet the power requirements through purchase from the open market. Once the power supply from the central sector normalises, we would be able to save the money which we have to spend in the open market."

The water in the Farakka plant's feeder canal - that is from the Ganga - is at times diverted to Bangladesh for 10 days as per an agreement between the two countries. It was Bangladesh's turn to get the water till March 30.

At the Barh plant, the power generation capacity of Unit 4 and 5 is 660MW each; Bihar gets 65 per cent of their total. The short supply of coal meant Unit 4 was generating 477MW and Unit 5 was generating 420MW on Tuesday.