Energy Minister Pratap Keshari Deb on Wednesday trashed the allegation of power cuts in the State. He said the sporadic incidents of power outage are results of tripping, a technical problem that occurs due to infrastructural issues.
“Why should we have power cuts when we have surplus power? Sometimes, high demand of power leads to failure in power supply with installed infrastructure. However, we promptly address that issue,” said Deb.
Sharing the performance of his department after a review meeting by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the Minister said that with the present generation of 8,065 MW, the State is able to meet the average peak hour power demand of around 5,400 MW.
“The Union Government has appreciated Odisha for the increase in average duration of power supply in rural areas from 30.13 hours in 2019-19 to 23.22 hours in 2021-22. This is better than the national average of 20.5 hours,” said the Minister.
Deb said the aggregate transmission and commercial (ATC) loss had been brought down from 30.57% in 2018-19 to 18.12% in 2022-23. Besides, 4.11 new connections were provided and 5,100 consumer grievances were redressed online through the Mo Bidyut programme.
The Minister informed that the share of renewable power has increased from 2.74% in 2018-19 to 10.10.7% in 2022-23.