Several localities of the city witnessed power cuts following rain on Monday.
The testing of lines continued till evening in order to ensure the disruption free electricity supply to the consumers.Department officials claimed that power supply was disrupted due to some technical snags and were also rectified by the staff of the department for ensuring the round the clock power to the consumers.
Majority of places in Dehradun witnessed erratic power supply with load shedding schedule since Monday morning till late in the evening. Residents living in the rural areas had a tough time as power supply continued for nearly two hours only and among the worst affected districts are Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts of the State.
Department sources told The Pioneer that it has become difficult for maintaining disruption free power supply to residents due to the scarcity of power as the power generation in the Maneri Bhali-II and Kalagarh hydro power projects have been stopped generating electricity.
“The circuit usually breakdowns during the storms and the power supply resumes only after rectifying the error,” the sources said. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl) managing director SS Yadav gave stern instructions to the department officials to strive round the clock power supply to the consumers in the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of the state.
The demand of electricity has once again started increasing and the power generation in the State run hydro power has started reducing due to the silt in the Himalayan rivers and its tributaries in higher parts of the state. However, officials claimed that department had been continuously procuring electricity from the neighbouring States to meet with the growing demand of electricity.
The latest figures compiled by the State Power department clearly highlighted that the demand of electricity hovers around 28-30 million units against the availability of 27-30 million units.Unable to cope up with the gap of two to three million units of electricity in the State, Power department was procuring electricity from the private electricity producers and department will procure additional 1.5 million units of electricity in order to bridge the gap between demand and supply of electricity in the state.