Dark days ahead

Bhubaneswar, July 8: The state will face frequent power cuts during the next few days as six central sector thermal units have been shutdown due to technical problems.

The authorities have scaled down production from hydropower stations because of low water levels in the reservoirs. Erratic rainfall has made them store water for irrigation and drinking water purposes. The state’s power requirement is already under strain due to low supply from hydropower projects.

“The state is having a shortfall of 450MW following the shutdown of the six units. It used to get a 476MW from these sources. The shortage will continue for next two to three days,” said director (commercial) of the state-run Odisha Power Transmission Corporation P. Pradhan.

“We expect that power generation from two of the major thermal units, which have been shutdown for maintenance, will be restored by tomorrow evening,” said the official. Of the six shutdown units, two are located in the super thermal power plants owned by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) at Kaniha near Talcher. Two are in the Talcher thermal power station and one each in Kehelgaon in Bihar and Farakka.

The two Kaniha units used to give a share of 208MW and two Talcher units 170MW. Odisha used to get a share of 98MW in total from Kehelgaon and Farakka plants.

The state is now managing with 2,550MW power against a demand of 3,000MW, leaving a shortfall of 450MW, said an official. It is now getting 809MW from captive power stations, 640MW from the thermal power units in Talcher and Ib, 400MW from hydropower stations and 710MW from the central share.

Between May and June, the state usually generates 800 to 900MW power every day. This time, the production at seven hydropower projects with an installed capacity of 2,084MW in the state has been around 400MW. “The state receives a normal rainfall of 186.4mm in June. This year, as of now, the state has received rainfall, deficient by 51 per cent,” said director of the regional meteorology centre Sarat Chandra Sahu.

“We expect the rainfall situation will improve by July 11 or 12 as a good amount of rainfall is expected at that time,” said Sahu.

“The shutdown of central sector power units has aggravated the power shortage. This year, because of the prediction about delayed monsoon and deficient rainfall, we had tried to keep some water stored at the Upper Indravati, Balimela and the Upper Kolab reservoirs. But if the dry spell continues, the hydro generation problem will worsen further in the coming days, forcing us to have more power cuts,” said an official of the Odisha Power Transmission Corporation.