The tall claims made by the State Power department that no scheduled power cut would be followed in the any parts of the State proved useless as several cities of the state have started facing the power outage. Among the most affected areas include rural areas of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts of Uttarakhand. Department officials blamed closure of two important hydro power projects due to the ongoing work of renovation, modernisation and upgradation besides, disaster that played catastrophe in the month of June, last year.
Despite the fact the State Power department claims that power has been regularly procuring from the open market besides through tenders, the gap between demand and supply of electricity in the State is being continuously bothering the department to meet with the demand of electricity in the State.
Unable to cope up with the demand of electricity in the State, the department has been continuously following scheduled power cut in order to meet with the demand of electricity in the State. Well-established department sources revealed that the residents are facing the power cut due to the maintenance works lined up by the department for ensuring the round the clock electricity and supply of correct voltage to the residents.
It is also noteworthy that the demand and supply of electricity has lowered from 30 million units after experiencing rain in the last week but the demand of electricity has once again started increasing and hovering around 32 million units in the State. Department officials lamented that the non supply of electricity from Maneri Bhalli-II and Kalagarh hydro power project has also forced the department to follow the unscheduled power cut in order to prevent grid.
One of the department sources who wished anonymity told The Pioneer that the department is resorted to minimum power cut in the State in order to avoid inconvenience to the residents in the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of the State. “Tightening loose connections after city witnesses thundershowers is the regular feature in the department in order to ensure disruption free and supply of correct voltage to the residents,” he said, adding that the department has been continuously procuring electricity from the private electricity generators in order to meet with the demand of electricity in the State.
According to him, the power generation in the State run hydro power projects is likely to increase once the Himalayan rivers and its tributaries have started melting with the rise of mercury in the coming days. He told that the department will receive 7.5 million units of electricity on Tuesday besides additional two million units of electricity would be purchased from open market in order to ensure disruption free electricity to the consumers on Thursday.