The State Government’s order on Saturday for uninterrupted power supply has been rendered meaningless as most parts of the State including the capital city have been bearing the brunt of frequent and undeclared power cuts.
Cesu CEO Sudarshan Nayak, however, claimed that there has been no instruction to effect power cut. There are power cuts in the areas where power trips due to overload. Due to the intense heat, the conductors at some places have melted and snapped which may be another cause for power failure, he sought to explain.
According to reports, besides Bhubaneswar, there have been prolonged power cuts in Puri, Nuapada and Boudh districts. While most areas in these districts have remained without power the whole night, in the remaining areas, people have complained about very low voltage, which is as bad as power cuts.
With the searing heat wave currently sweeping across the State, the hide-and-seek of power has made the life of the people miserable.
Going by sources, a total of 1,97,600 km of power lines are under the four power distribution companies (Discoms), Cesu, Southco, Wesco and Nesco, which supply power to nearly 49 lakh consumers through 1.26 lakh sub-stations.
Since the last 40 years, there has been no replacement of about 60 per cent of the old wires and electric poles. The discoms supply power to most of the areas with the help of these old and worn-out wires. The situation has become more acute in some districts after the Cyclone Phailin in October last year.
While Grid Corporation of Odisha (Gridco) Director (Commercial) PK Pradhan has attributed the disruption in power supply to excess consumption of power by air coolers and air conditioners, a senior official of the Energy Department said the power disruption in Bhubaneswar is due to low potential of the Chandaka-Mancheswar and Chandaka-Ransinghpur power lines.
These two power lines have transmission capacity of 90 megawatt while the present requirement is 130-140 megawatt, he said.
He said a decision has been taken to replace these old lines with high-tension low sag (HTlS) wires in phases which would take at least three to four weeks. But since this is not possible at present, it has been decided to resume the replacement work from July.
The Energy Department has also decided to set up new grid stations at Rasulgarh, Unit-VIII, lingipur and Gothapatna, after which power problems in Bhubaneswar can be solved, he informed.
The department also hopes to solve power problems in Padmapur, Nuapada, Dabugan and Boudh areas by June this year, he added. The official, however, made it clear that despite these measures, power problems would continue in the State unless the discoms replace the old power lines with new ones.