Even as the UP Power Corporation Limited claimed that there was no power crisis in Uttar Pradesh, the state continued to reel under power shortage due to a gap of over 2,000 megawatt between demand and supply.

The coal stock position with the thermal power plants of the states remains at critical level with Anpara, Obra, Harduaganj and Parichha units having coal for two to four days.

The UP Power Engineers Association said despite the availability of additional 1,600 MW of electricity, the gap remained at over 2,000 MW.

The total availability of electricity at 2 pm on Sunday was 20,800 MW

UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) Chairman M Devraj said here on Sunday that from the midnight of April 30/May 1, the power supply had been increased by one to one and a half hours. He said UP was getting additional 1,686 MW of power, which included 838 MW from competitive bidding, 131 MW from hydroelectric plants, and 717 MW from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.  He said western UP registered a sharp fall in power demand following the thunderstorms during the wee hours of Sunday.

Devraj said efforts were underway on a war footing for commissioning the closed units of the thermal power plants. He said the units were closed for various technical reasons. Besides, effective monitoring of revenue recovery was also being done, he added. He said all possible efforts were being made to ensure normal power supply across the state.

Union Energy Secretary Alok Kumar on Sunday reviewed the power availability position in UP through video conferencing. The officials of Coal India Limited, Railways, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) were present in the conference. Alok Kumar assured support to UP in containing the crisis situation.   

Devraj said, “The UPPCL is making efforts on war footing to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the consumers. The power utility has ensured record power supply despite the constraint of an unprecedented heat wave.”

The UPPCL chairman also spoke to Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO) to provide additional power to UP. POSOCO is a wholly owned enterprise of the Central government under the Union Ministry of Power. It consists of five Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDC) and a National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC). The UPPCL is also in constant communication with the top echelons of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), seeking good quality coal for the thermal power plants.

Devraj said UPPCL had asked all its subsidiaries to ensure preventive maintenance of the transformers and increase in capacity of the sub-stations. He said detailed guidelines had already been issued to all discoms for the preventive maintenance of the power distribution network across the state. He said for the facility of the power consumers, toll free service 1912 was being made more effective. The UPPCL chairman said the discoms had been directed to ensure that the power consumers get prompt response from the toll free service.