Officials of the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl) claim that the corporation is facilitating supply of electricity as per the demand. There is no shortage of power in the State and the required electricity is purchased by the corporation if and when needed, aver the officials. However, people in Dehradun and elsewhere in the State continue to face problems resulting from frequent disruptions in the power supply especially in the rural areas.
As the power demand increased up to 36.70 MU in the State, the rural areas in Udham Singh Nagar faced up to three hour disruption in power supply while small towns in the Kumaon region experienced about two-hour break in power supply by 5 pm on Thursday.
Due to some technical snag in the 160 MVA transformer at the 220 KV sub station in Roorkee, power- cut was imposed for one and half hour in Roorkee, Manglaur and laksar areas of Haridwar district.
Moreover, due to shortfall in the volume of water, state- based hydro-power projects - Maneri Bhali-I and Maneri Bhali-II stopped electricity generation between 11 am and 4 pm on Thursday, resulting in power deficit across the State.
In Dehradun, various localities including Harrawala, Jogiwala, Raipur, Doiwala and many other places have been facing problems due to frequent power supply disruptions for many days now. The frequent power outages are also causing disruption in the supply of water with the resulting hardship being exacerbated by power cuts in the morning hours.
Raipur resident Samir said frequent power cuts are occurring almost daily in the area. For 10 days, residents of rural areas in Dehradun have been grappling with problems resulting from power cuts, he said. Suman Semwal of Harrawala said that locals were suffering due to frequent disruption of power supply in the area. People have to go without water for hours at times due to power cuts which are causing considerable stress to those who do not have access to power back up, he added.
However, UPCl executive engineer (Dehradun rural) Arvind Kumar stressed that no such power-cuts were being imposed anywhere in the rural areas. “We have no such information about any locality in the city reeling under power-cuts. We have not received any such complaint from anywhere. Power-cuts for about a couple of hours might be faced in some areas due to localised technical faults,” he added.
According to the UPCl, the demand for electricity in the State on Thursday was 36.70 million units whereas 35.49 million units of electricity were available from the State- based hydro power units, central sector and other sources.
The State received just 13.37 MU against the normal volume of 16 MU per day on Thursday. UPCl received 9.08 MU from various state- based hydro power units on Thursday.
In addition to this, the corporation would get 5.00 MU from Indian Energy Exchanges on Friday which would help bridge the deficit, it is learnt. To prevent power cuts during the Ardh Kumbh in Haridwar, about 1 MU may be purchased to fill the deficit.