Digha grid sub-station in Patna, which became operational on Monday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Residents of the power-starved western part of the state capital can heave a sigh of relief with the much-awaited Digha grid sub- station becoming operational on Monday.

The new grid would help reduce the burden on the overloaded Khagaul grid, which has been supplying power to the entire western part of the city. Tripping of feeder because of overload led to frequent and long power cuts in the area last year.

“The Digha grid sub-station was test-charged today and partial load was transferred to the grid in the presence of senior Power Grid and state electricity board officials,” board spokesman H.R. Pandey told The Telegraph.

“The grid has been made operational from today, but the full load would be shifted on it from Khagaul grid in the next two-three days. This will ensure better and quality power supply to western Patna,” said SKP Singh, the general manager of Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu), which has been entrusted with supplying power to the capital.

Areas like Digha, Patliputra, Rajiv Nagar, Rajabazaar, Ashiana Nagar, SK Puri, SK Nagar, IGIMS, Excise Colony and other adjoining areas would get power supply from Digha grid after it becomes fully operational.

The Telegraph had reported in its March 29 edition that the grid would be functional from the first week of April.

At present, Patna has six power grids of different capacities — Fatuha (150MVA), Khagaul (150MVA), Mithapur, Gaighat, Katra (100MVA each) and Jakkanpur (170MVA). These grids supply around 400MW of power to the state capital. The Digha grid would enhance the transmission capacity by another 80MW.

Initially, the commissioning of the grid was scheduled for June 2011. But the date for the completion of the power grid’s construction was advanced to August-September the same year. The board later set a new target for completing the construction work of the grid by December and then again in March this year.

The state’s power demand hovers between 2,500 and 3,000 MW. The state, which has negligible power generation of around 100MW, is heavily dependent on the central sector’s allocation. Bihar is supposed to get 1,772MW of power from the central sector but it normally gets around 1,000-1,200MW on a daily average. Apart from the central sector allocation, the state has been getting additional 500MW of power from March this year from the open market.

Of the total available power of about 1,600-1,700MW, Patna is supplied around 400-450MW against its peak demand of 550MW to 600MW.