The power generation will be stopped for about two months at the Maneribhali-II power project for works to be undertaken following the damage wreaked by the disaster last year has made the State power department to procure electricity in order to meet with the demand of electricity in the State. Besides, the department is also banned from over-withdrawing from the Central grid in order to prevent the grid to crash.
The demand of electricity has started increasing with the rise in the mercury and the department is forced to procure electricity from the private electricity generators. Department sources revealed that 465 KV Beena-Gwalior line is already overloaded and the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl) is being barred to over-withdraw from the central grid by Northern Regional load Despatch Centre (NRlDC) in order to prevent grid to crash.
The latest data compiled by the State power department clearly highlighted that the demand of electricity is hovering around 33 million units whereas the availability of the electricity is 30 million units of electricity in the state thus causing gap of nearly two to three million units of electricity in the State. Unable to cope up with the demand of electricity in the State, the State power department is implementing power cut across the State with rural areas of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts are worst affected in terms of power cut.
The gap between demand and supply of electricity has widen further after the work of renovation, modernisation and upgradation of Maneri-Bhalli-II hydro power project started following the damage wreaked by the disaster that rocked entire State in June last year. Due to this the power generation at Maneri-Bhalli-II will have to be stopped for about two months from March 11 which in turn will decrease the power availability in Uttarakhand by about 1.2 million units per day.
Besides, residents too face long power cuts due to the shutdown by Power Grid Corporation on 400 KV transmission lines. One of the department sources from the state power department who wished anonymity told The Pioneer that the department has been continuously procuring electricity from the private players in order to meet with the demand of electricity in the State. “Apart from receiving electricity through tender, the department has been continuously procuring four to six million units of electricity per day in order to meet with the demand of electricity in the state,” he said, adding that the power generation will increase once the Himalayan rivers started melting in the near future.