Unscheduled load shedding for over seven hours badly hit normal life here on Monday.The power supply that went off around 10. 30 on Monday morning here, resumed only after 5.30 pm affecting the routine course of life adversely.
The matter of concern is that power cuts for three to four hours even in urban areas like Haldwani has become a routine affair nowadays. But patience of citizens started wearing thin when the power supply continued to remain disrupted for over seven hours on Monday. The power situation in rural and hilly areas of the State is not less concerning.
According to the figures provided by the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl), whereas gross availability of power in Uttarakhand is around 29 million unit (mu) per day i.e. about 10 mu per day from domestic sources, about 11 mu per day from Central pool and rest about 8 mu per day from other sources, the demand for power has constantly been over 32 mu per day in the hill state.
Although there has been a marginal increase in power generation from indigenous sources of late i.e. from on an average 7 mu per day reported on December 1 to around 10 mu per day as on December 19, as the UPCl figures suggest, yet there has been no let up in the unscheduled load shedding across the State.
Apart from shortage of power, technical fault at local level are also reported to be one of the main reasons leading to power disruption for long hours. However, as has been experienced in the past, power situation may be worsened ahead when demand for power goes up during the peak winter season ahead in Uttarakhand.