The Centre’s move to allocate 150MW of additional power to Bihar has enthused the state.

For, unlike the past when summer months were synonymous with acute power shortage, Bihar had over 1,900MW of power at its disposal a day after additional allocation to the state was notified.

Earlier, Bihar had an allocation of 1833.99MW from the central sector. This was raised by 150MW on April 26 and now the state has a quota of 1983.99MW from central sector.

Against this allocation, the state on Saturday received 1,630MW from the central sector and 290MW from the open market.

“Distributing over 1,900MW of electricity was a litmus test for the efficacy of works carried out to strengthen distribution system in the state in the past year. We passed the test as no major problem was reported from any part of the state,” a senior official of Bihar state power (holding) company told The Telegraph on condition of anonymity.

Residents of far off places corroborated his claim. “Till around a year back, our village used to get 15 hours of power a month. We now get around eight hours of power daily,” said Sudhanshu Kumar of Nayanagar village in Samastipur district, around 130 km northeast of Patna.

Indrajeet of Tariya village in West Champaran district, around 200km northwest of Patna, echoed Sudhanshu. “Power supply to our village has improved drastically in the past year and we now get at least 10 hours of power daily,” he said.

Even on Sunday, the power scenario in Bihar was better than the average availability of 1,100 to 1,400MW when it received 1,670MW, of which 1,380MW came from central sector and 290 MW from the open market.

As things stand now, Bihar, with 501 power sub-stations, can transmit over 3,000MW but because of glitches in the distribution system, over 1,500MW cannot be absorbed.

Since chief minister Nitish Kumar’s announcement to deliver electricity to every village by 2015, efforts are on to strengthen the distribution system to cut transmission losses and utilise available power. As a result, power distribution is now on the verge of touching 2,500MW.

This has been possible largely because of burnt transformers being replaced, regular monitoring by energy department secretary Sandeep Pondrik and monthly review by chief secretary A.K. Sinha. A review during the first week of April showed that all burnt transformers had been replaced.

Prior to that, at least 400-500 of the 45,000-odd transformers used to deliver power to households used to remain damaged.

Encouraged by the enhanced allocation and availability of power in the past two days, the holding company source said: “If the situation on power supply front remains the same, people residing in districts can expect 12 hours of power supply this summer.” That should sound like music to Bihar residents. But for Patna and some important towns, the districts used to receive hardly four to six hours of power during earlier summer months.