The decreasing mercury has not only increased the plight of residents but is also creating problems to the State power department for ensuring the disruption free electricity to the consumers in the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of Uttarakhand.
Department officials lamented that tripping of lines has started becoming a regular feature due to the intense fog
in the plains and hilly areas of the State. Department sources said that power disruption was reported after technical
snags were reported on Muzafarnagar-Puhana 400 KV transmission line due to the intense fogging in the region.
Due to the tripping, the load was shifted to the other region and five hours of compulsory power outage was followed in Haridwar district whereas two hour of power cut was implemented in Kotdwar, Roorkee, Jawalapur and
other small towns of the Garhwal region.
Interestingly, the power outage was also followed due to the shutdown by Uttar Pradesh power department on Muzafarnagar-Puhana 400 KV transmission line from 10 am to 4 pm on
Thursday and the power outage was followed for nearly four hours in the small towns of Garhwal division of the State whereas the hilly areas faced the brunt of the power outage for nearly three hours.
Sources said that the department has been continuously procuring electricity through tenders and likely to receive on 8.4 million units of electricity on Friday.
Officials also expressed concern over the decreasing rate of power generation through State-run hydro power projects and further told that one of the turbines of Maneri Bhalli-I has failed to generate electricity on Thursday thus increased the gap between demand and supply of electricity in the State.
Officials told that the power generation in the state run hydro power projects is hovering around 10 million units per day whereas the demand of electricity is around 30 million units.
Unable to cope up with the demand of electricity in the state, Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl) has left with no other option than to follow power cuts and those who are living in the remote areas of the State are among the worst sufferers in terms of power outage.
One of the department sources who wished anonymity told The Pioneer that the department has been working round the clock for ensuring the disruption free electricity to the consumers. He said that the department has been continuously fixing the problem for disruption free electricity.
After expressing his concern that fog and pollution always threatens the transmission lines, he explained that fog intermingled with air pollutants settles on the ceramic insulators.