Patna, March 10: The residents of Bihar, particularly those living in the state capital, might face less power cuts this summer as the electricity board has started getting 500MW of additional supply from the open market.

The total power demand (daily) of the state hovers between 2,500 and 3,000MW. The state, which generates around 100MW, is heavily dependent upon the central sector allocation. Bihar is supposed to get 1,772MW of power from the central sector, but it gets around 1000 to 1,200MW on an average.

Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) has signed two agreements with National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd (NVVNL) and Adani Power for a supply of 300MW and 200MW each, respectively. The board is purchasing 300MW from NVVNL on a short-term basis. As part of the short-term plan, power purchase agreement (PPA) is signed for a period up to one year.

The board has started receiving another 200MW of power from Adani Power, which would supply power to the electricity board for the next 46 months (from March 2012 to December 2015) under the medium term plan. PPA is signed for more than a year, but it does not exceeding seven years as part of the medium term plan.

“We signed the two agreements in February. These companies have started supplying power to the state. Under the medium term plan, we have ensured availability of 200MW for 46 months. The scheme would end in December 2014, when most of our power projects would start generation,” board spokesman H.R. Pandey told The Telegraph.

Bihar received its lowest power allocation (690MW) from the central sector in April last year. The state received about 600 to 800MW from the central generating units during the peak summer last year, either because of technical problems or coal or water crisis at NTPC plants in Kahalgaon, Talchar and Farakka.

The state government’s efforts to ensure availability of additional 500MW (200 MW under medium term and 300MW under short-term plan) of power would, however, provide better supply to the capital.

This could be evident from the fact that the state received 1,600MW on Saturday. This included 500MW that the board has been purchasing from the open market. This suggests that the state received 1100MW from the central sector as against the scheduled allocation of 1772MW. “Had the state not been getting 500MW, it (state) would have to face the same crisis situation as it faced during the summer last year,” a board official said.

The power distribution system in the state capital would be further strengthened with the commissioning of the Digha grid sub-station by the end of March. The commissioning of the grid sub-station would provide better supply to western Patna because the grid would reduce pressure on the overloaded Khagaul grid sub-station. “We are confident that the Digha grid would become operational by the end of March,” a senior Patna Electric Supply Undertaking official said.