Uttar Pradesh reels under acute power crunch: All you need to know

Lucknow: Amid the rise in mercury level, the people of Uttar Pradesh have been facing acute power crisis this summer. The demand for electricity in the state has increased to an all-time high level of 23000 mw per day whereas the supply at present is less than 20000 mw only.

Seeing the shortage of railway racks for the coal supply, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday directed officials to use road transport for the supply.

The state energy minister Arvind Sharma has asked the officials of UP Power Generation Corporation Limited (UPPGCL) to use road transport network for supply of coal instead of depending on railways. He said that coal would be transported for UP’s biggest thermal power plant at Anpara through road. This power plant in UP produces a maximum of 2360 mw power every day. The energy minister said that demand for electricity has risen drastically this year. During summer in the previous three years, the peak demand used to be 17000 mw, which has risen by more than 5000 mw this year. The highest demand for electricity in UP was 23000 mw on last Saturday so far.

Due to gap in demand and supply, the cities, as well as UP, have been facing worst-ever power cuts. In cities, there have been power cuts for 8 to 10 hours every day while only 8 hours of electricity is being supplied to villages instead of 16 hours. At present UP is generating 4300 mw from its own thermal plants besides its hydro units have been producing 366 mw. The state is getting 8500 mw per day from the central quota and the private power plants are supplying 6200 mw per day. There has been a gap of 3634 megawatt between the demand and supply of electricity in UP at present.

According to the officials in the energy department, there has been the worst-ever coal shortage with the generation units in the state. This has effected the generation of 303 million unit of electricity in the April only. The coal availability status with various power plants in UP has reached to an alarming level. Anpara plant has left with coal for five days only while Obra has for four days and Harduaganj for three days. Officials informed that Anpara Thermal Plant needs 40000 tons of coal every day whereas it is getting 30000 tones while Obra is getting 12500 tones against the daily demand of 15700 tones and Paricha only 15500 tones against the requirement of 19000 tones.

Amidst power crisis in the state, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has removed its in charge of Unchahaar power plant in UP. The head of this unit Kamlesh Soni has been sent to regional office of Mumbai NTPC and Abhay Kumar from Jharkhand has replaced him. The state government has asked staff of power corporation to put in extra hours of works to maintain supply.