Akhilesh Yadav government understated power demand: UP tells Centre
NEW DELHI: The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has told the Centre that the preceding Akhilesh Yadavled Samajwadi Party government understated electricity demand in the run-up to the recent assembly election to gloss over the power crisis in the state, a senior central government official said.
"The state was showing restricted electricity demand, which is in violation of the regulations of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on information sharing. The state’s authorities have now admitted in writing that its previous government had asked it to do so," the official told ET on condition of anonymity.
Data available with CEA shows that the energy deficit in UP in January 2016 stood high at 11.5% — the energy requirement was showed at 8,340 million units against supply of 7,384 million units. In January this year, the state showed 0.8% deficit, with demand of 8,747 million units and availability of 8,673 million units.
The official said that in the past few months, UP had started calculating electricity demand to meet power supply for 18 hours against the norm of 24 hours.
"When the state officials were quizzed by the new government, they admitted that the Samajwadi Party-led state government had ordered officials to adopt alow base for demand," the official said.
The SP could not be immediately reached for comment.
Earlier, the BJP-led central government had questioned accuracy of data provided on power supply situation by Uttar Pradesh to CEA. "We were aware of the long power cuts in the state, despite it claiming to be a low power deficit state. We had time and again questioned the sudden drop in power deficit, given the same level of electricity requirement and supply position," another official close to the development said.
The state has also allegedly signed bilateral power purchase deals at high cost while cheaper power was available.
UP will on Friday join the Centre’s Power For All programme to ensure 24x7 electricity access by 2019. The programme includes a roadmap to reduce technical and commercial losses of electricity through collection efficiency and effective metering, development of transmission and sub-transmission networks, increasing renewable energy generation and adopting energy efficiency measures.
"The state was showing restricted electricity demand, which is in violation of the regulations of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on information sharing. The state’s authorities have now admitted in writing that its previous government had asked it to do so," the official told ET on condition of anonymity.
Data available with CEA shows that the energy deficit in UP in January 2016 stood high at 11.5% — the energy requirement was showed at 8,340 million units against supply of 7,384 million units. In January this year, the state showed 0.8% deficit, with demand of 8,747 million units and availability of 8,673 million units.
The official said that in the past few months, UP had started calculating electricity demand to meet power supply for 18 hours against the norm of 24 hours.
"When the state officials were quizzed by the new government, they admitted that the Samajwadi Party-led state government had ordered officials to adopt alow base for demand," the official said.
The SP could not be immediately reached for comment.
Earlier, the BJP-led central government had questioned accuracy of data provided on power supply situation by Uttar Pradesh to CEA. "We were aware of the long power cuts in the state, despite it claiming to be a low power deficit state. We had time and again questioned the sudden drop in power deficit, given the same level of electricity requirement and supply position," another official close to the development said.
The state has also allegedly signed bilateral power purchase deals at high cost while cheaper power was available.
UP will on Friday join the Centre’s Power For All programme to ensure 24x7 electricity access by 2019. The programme includes a roadmap to reduce technical and commercial losses of electricity through collection efficiency and effective metering, development of transmission and sub-transmission networks, increasing renewable energy generation and adopting energy efficiency measures.
