After experiencing thundershowers in the higher parts of the Uttarakhand, State Power Department has once again started receiving shortage of electricity for maintaining round the clock power supply to the consumers in the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of the State.
The department officials put blame on the stopping of turbines of Government run hydro power projects for the shortage of power in the State. The demand of electricity has once again started increasing and the power generation in the State-run hydro power has started reducing due to the silt in the Himalayan rivers and its tributaries in higher parts of the State.
However, department officials claimed that department has been continuously procuring electricity from the neighbouring States to meet with the growing demand of electricity.
The power generation in State run hydro power projects hover around 15-17 million units per day. Although the situation is still far from being normal now-a-days, there has been a slight improvement in the power scenario in Uttarakhand. The state has been reeling under power crises on account of a sharp decline in the power generation because of the maintenance works and silt incidents in the Himalayan rivers.
The latest figures compiled by the state power department clearly highlighted that the demand of electricity hovers around 33-36 million units against the availability of 32-34 million units in the State.
Unable to cope up with the gap of 2-3 million units of electricity in the state, state power department is procuring the electricity from the private electricity producers. The figures highlighted that the 2.7 million units of electricity worth Rs 60 lakh each was procured in the last two days. Unable to cope up with the gap between demand and availability of electricity in Uttarakhand, the state power department has been strictly implementing load shedding in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts of the state and those who are living in the remote areas of these districts are worst sufferers as load shedding upto to two to three hours has been implemented to meet with the growing demand of electricity in the state.
Sources confirmed that the power generation in Kalagarh ad Pathri hydro power projects has not resumed after experiencing silt due to the inclement weather in the higher parts of the state. One of the department sources who wished anonymity told The Pioneer that the electricity generation in the state run hydro projects is completely rely on snowfall, copious rainfall and water levels in the rivers and rate of power generation increases during summer as the frozen Himalayan rivers have started melting with the rise of temperature in the state.
He also blamed heavy industrialization, line loss and unauthorized consumers who consume huge share of genuine consumers. He told that couple of private company has concurred with the department for selling the electricity to Uttarakhand.