Balasore, Sept. 28: Regular power cuts ahead of the festive season have evoked strong discontentment among the residents of this township and its peripheral areas. For the past two weeks, Balasore township residents had been witnessing power cuts twice everyday.

The loadshedding, supposedly resorted to by the North Eastern Electricity Supply Company of Orissa (Nesco), have left domestic consumers as well as industrial units in the lurch.

The Nesco authorities said that on an average, the state was experiencing a daily shortfall of about 300 megawatt (MW) of electricity because of which power was being cut in Balasore town for an hour each in the mornings and evenings.

“The shortfall here is 27MW during the day and 29MW in the evening. Apart from coal crisis in the thermal units, hydropower generation by the Balimela, Upper Kolab and Indravati units is also not sufficient. Hence, we have been forced to cut power supply in phases for two hours a day,” said G. Sahu, superintendent engineer, Nesco.

Devasish Mohanty, president of the North Orissa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nocci), said discussions with Nesco indicated that they were not resorting to any such practice of their own accord. Electricity supply was rather being regulated by the Grid Corporation of Orissa Limited (Gridco) because of certain problems in power generation.

The present power supply situation here brings back memories of last year when load shedding had become a routine affair. “The state government and the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) had assured us that the entire state would have adequate power supply if people paid higher tariffs,” Mohanty said.