State reels under power crisis

VADODARA: Gujarat is reeling under severe power crisis as the demand for power has gone up with the mercury touching 46 degree Celsius in the past few days.
The Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) is facing a shortage of about 1,800 mw as it has not been able to overdraw power from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh with these states facing capacity shortage.And due to this, GEB is unable to meet the power demand of various categories of consumers in the state.
Though GEB buys 400 mw of power from two naphtha-based independent power producers (IPPs), Essar and Gujarat Industries & Power Company Limited (GIPCL), it is not in a position to maintain eight hours of three-phase power supply to the farm sector. With naphtha being a costlier fuel for power generation, some central sector units in Korba and Vindhyachal had to be closed down. As a result, the state is getting lesser than its due share of power from the central sector power projects.
The GEB has imposed several hours of power cut in rural and urban areas, besides asking industries to observe a two-hour power cut during peak hours in the evening. Moreover, GEB is compelled to restrict the hours of single phase power supply to rural areas because of complaints on misuse.
The GEB stopped getting additional assistance of power from the northern region with some units developing technical snags there. And the gas-based thermal stations are not in a position to generate power as per their installed capacity due to less allocation of gas.
GEB also buys power from several companies owning captive power plants, but these companies generate power mainly for their own use.
The hydel power stations at Ukai in south Gujarat and Kadana in central Gujarat are on the verge of being closed down with the receding water level.
Under these circumstances, it is difficult to expect some improvement in the state''s power front soon.