There was no let up in the power crisis as the demand for electricity touched a new peak of over 23,000 megawatt and coal stocks at thermal power plants in Uttar Pradesh plunged to precarious levels.
The UP Power Corporation Limited has imposed a 10-hour power cuts in rural areas and small towns. Bundelkhand is getting only 14 hours’ supply while undeclared power cuts have been imposed in big cities also. Officially big cities are exempted from power cuts.
The power demand on Thursday/Friday touched 23,000 MW against the availability of only 19,000 MW. The availability of power included 4,300 MW from thermal power plants of UP Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, 6,200 MW from IPPs, 366 MW from hydro plants and 8,500 MW from central sector power plants.
The All India Power Engineers’ Federation said out of 150 thermal plants using domestic coal, the number of plants with critical coal stock increased from 81 to 86 in one week, while among private power producers, the number of plants with critical coal stock increased from 28 to 32 during the same period.
As the power crisis was getting aggravated, the maximum electricity demand that was met touched across the country 2.07 lakh MW on Friday, the highest ever. The peak power demand level stood at 2.05 lakh MW on Thursday, compared with a level of 1.82.5 lakh MW a year ago.
According to Central Electricity Authority’s fuel management cell daily coal data update, as on April 27, out of the 173 thermal plants across the country, 106 plants had coal stocks that were at critical levels. Out of 150 thermal plants using domestic coal, the number of plants with critical coal stock increased from 81 to 86 in one week, while among private power producers, plants with critical coal stock increased from 28 to 32 during the same period.
Meanwhile, UP Energy Minister AK Sharma blamed the previous Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party governments in UP for the present power crisis. He claimed that adequate attention was never given to the power sector during the previous regimes.
“Had the previous government paid adequate attention to the power sector, the present crisis would not have happened. For the present government, the power crisis is a legacy issue. The Yogi Adityanath government is taking measures to tide over the crisis,” the energy minister said in Jhansi on Saturday.
The minister said the power demand was around 17,000 MW in the last four years which had shot up to 22,000 MW due to the unprecedented heat wave. He said the technical faults at the state owned thermal power plants had aggravated the power crisis. He said the faults had been rectified and plants had resumed normal power generation.
All India Power Engineers Federation chairman Shailendra Dubey said lack of coordination amongst the ministries of Coal, Railways and Energy was responsible for coal shortage, which had caused widespread power outages across the country.
“Every ministry is now claiming that it is not responsible for the present mess in the power sector and what is worse is that the Central ministries have now linked the issue to the states’ inability to make timely payments to coal companies,” he said.
“Against the requirement of about 22 million tons of domestic coal for thermal power plants every day, only 16.4 million tons of coal is available. The inventory of coal is depleting every day and has now reached a critical position,” he added.