Poor power play of Energy Department is apparently on display. When the State is witnessing regular long power-cuts only for around 500MW shortage, close to over 2,174MW capacity in Odisha are under outage - which is nearly 20 per cent of the total installed capacity in the State.
Moreover, the daily power status of State as late as September 22, 2015 didn’t show any shortage thanks to decreased power demand due to rains. But the power-cuts continue with same intensity.
Sample the power play. From April to September 17, 2015, a high of 2,174 MW capacities are under outage. While 414MW hydro capacity in State was under forced outage due to equipment failure, over 1,200MW capacity from private producers could not be generated owing to feeder problem and equipment failure. Similarly, around 560MW from NTPC’s Talcher is under planned outage basically for annual maintenance.
Data reveals that these outages since September 11 have actually triggered the power-cuts. But the department brings in the excuse of poor monsoon and half-full reservoirs.
Consider this. A look at the power status on September 21 and 22 reveals a different story. The maximum demand met during the day stood at around 3,199 MW and 3,280MW respectively with no shortage being reported.
Significantly, when the department announced power-cuts the maximum demand was around 3,454 MW and a shortfall of around 300 MW was reported. From then the maximum demand in State has declined by around 19 per cent to around 2,796MW by September 13. However, the heralding of puja season pushed the demand up to over 3,200 MW by Monday - which still is 7 per cent lower than that figure.
Energy experts see the maximum demand during a day to rise till October due to festivals, but would again slide back to around 2,500 MW level by mid-November and they question the rationale of power cuts by State till June 2016.
However, it appears despite having coal stock for 15 days (as on September 17) Sterlite’s unit-1 with 600MWcapacity faced outage on September 17 and it would not become operational even by year end. Similarly, Derang TPP’s 600MW witnessed forced outage on September 16 due to feeder problem and its becoming operational by even year-end looks uncertain.
Experts, therefore, attribute the current power crisis in State to failure of private power producers and the Energy Department’s inability to address bottlenecks faced by private producers. Significantly, the department has not held any meeting so far this year to review the challenges and status of power generation by the private sector. Interestingly, the capacities under outage in Odisha are far higher than Jharkhand and Bihar in the eastern region.