Even after 15 months of the signing of MOU ‘Power For All’ (PFA) between the UP and Union governments that promised 24 hour power supply to all big cities and district headquarters, the state was still reeling under long hours of supply breakdowns. The gap between demand and supply was one reason for the power crisis. However, the bigger cause is lack of power transmission capacity and poor distribution infrastructure which is unable to cope with shooting demand due to heat wave conditions. Under the PFA, every household in the state was to be provided with metered power connection in the state. This number is over 1.5 crore households and most of these are to be given free connections. UPPCl sources said that this would further add to power demand and burden on finances of the power utility. With the addition of 1.5 crore new consumers, the gap between Average Cost of Supply (ACS) and Average Revenue Realised (ARR) will further widen. This would only add to the woes of UPPCl which has already been given two bailout packages by Union Energy ministry.
With the rise in mercury, long hours of power cuts in lucknow, despite being exempted from power cuts, has become the order of the day. District headquarters with poor distribution infrastructure are the worst hit
“There is no dearth of power still there is gap of 2,000 MW between demand and supply. The present heatwave coupled with delayed monsoon has aggravated the situation. We hope the situation to improve with the onset of monsoon,’’said a senior UPPCl official. “Power demand has crossed 20,000 MW while transmission capacity is only 18,000 MW in UP. On Sunday, against the demand of over 450 ,illion units, supply was only 439 million units. The excess demand can be met as abundant power is available in energy exchange but the UPPCl lacks transmission capacity and it could import only 8,000 MW from other states,’’ said Chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation, Shailendra Dube. “Even if some overload on transmission was allowed, then the distribution network cannot cope with additional load,’’ he said. A joint declaration made after signing of MOU between UP and Centre on April 14 last year said, ``The two governments in sync will take necessary steps for village electrification, capacity addition, power purchase planning, strengthening required transmission and distribution network, encouraging renewable energy, undertaking customer-centric initiatives, reducing technical and commercial losses, bridging the gap between ACS and ARR, and following good governance practices in the implementation of electricity-related Central and State Government schemes.’’ Uttar Pradesh is one of the largest state in the country and its per capital power cosnumption has grown from 450 kwh in 2012 to 524 kwh in 2016. Still, consumption remains well below the national average of about 1,075 kwh as recorded in 2016.