A day after the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh Government exchanged barbs over rampant outages there, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) on Saturday announced that it will supply 325 MW of electricity to the State from June 1.
Meanwhile, owing to heavy rain and sandstorm which had lashed major States of north India, the northern electricity grid suffered a load loss of 8,000 MW, including 3,500 MW in the national capital, the Power Ministry said, adding that restoration work was on in full swing with the national capital being given top priority.In Delhi, top priority was being accorded to restoring power to emergency services such as hospitals, Delhi Metro, water treatment plants and the New Delhi Municipal Council area, the Ministry informed.
On the Uttar Pradesh situation, NTPC in a statement said that the State has been reeling under acute power shortage owing to heat wave conditions prevailing there and therefore electricity supply has been provisioned to it.“UP has requisitioned power to the tune of 325 MW from NTPC which will be supplied to the State from June 1 to June 7,” a company official said.The power supply issue though had boiled over on Friday after it generated political heat between the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh Government.
UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had alleged that the Centre is not making available enough fuel for the power companies in the State.However, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal had reacted by saying that the State was free to purchase as much power as it requires.In a parallel development, the Power Ministry monitored the Northern electricity grid which had been affected due to heavy rain, dust and thunderstorms and wind speeds exceeding 75 kmph which had lashed areas of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand on Friday evening.
“As a result, 68 transmission lines tripped. The load loss was at the rate of 200 MW per minute, resulting in a northern grid load loss of about 8,000 MW, including 3,500 MW in Delhi,” a Power Ministry statement said.Goyal reviewed the situation arising out of the load interruption, according to the statement. The Ministry also said restoration work has started.“Out of 68 lines that tripped during the incident, 49 lines have been restored and supply has been restored gradually in all the States,” the statement added.
Assistance was provided to Delhi through the Emergency Restoration System (ERS) for early restoration of affected lines, especially Mandola-Gopalpur, Bawana-Rohini and Bamnauli-Pappankalan, which are affecting power supply in the northern Delhi region.The Minister also assured that all help to Delhi in early restoration of the lines will be given and directed Power Grid Corporation of India, the central transmission utility, to extend all cooperation in this regard.