CM urges Centre for extra power from NTPC unit Sandeep Mishra

BHUBANESWAR: With Odisha reeling under electricity shortage since the past two months, chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday requested the Centre to provide 500 mega watt additional power from the National Thermal Power Corporation’s Kaniha unit.
“I request you to consider allocation of additional 500 MW power from Talcher Super Thermal Power Station (TSTPS) Stage-II against our entitlement as Odisha has not availed its legitimate share of 500 MW from the station,” the chief minister said in a letter to Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.Odisha had in the past sought electricity from TSTPS, but the Centre has not acceded to the demand.
Naveen’s letter seems to a desperate bid as the state government, which not very long ago was boasting of being a power surplus, is finding it increasingly difficult to meet the state’s needs. “The current peak demand of the state is more than 3300 MW and there is already a shortfall of around 800 MW,” Naveen said, adding, “Since only 25 per cent of water is available in the reservoirs of the major hydro power stations of southern Odisha at Upper Kolab, Upper Indravati and Balimela, this has led to a drastic decline in the hydro power availability.”
Official sources said as against an installed capacity of around 2000 MW the state is presently getting less than 250 MW. Generation from thermal sources has fallen in recent weeks owing to coal scarcity and outage, sources added.
Attributing a surge in demand because of rapid industrialization and rural electrification, Naveen said under the centrally sponsored Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana and the state-funded Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana around 11 lakh below poverty line households in 45,000 villages have been electrified. Besides, 23 lakh BPL families in 50,000 villages and habitation will get electricity connections under these schemes, he told Shinde.
“All these factors have resulted in an acute power deficit situation in Odisha seriously affecting the general public, agricultural operations and industrial production,” Naveen explained.
The situation, indeed, has come to such a pass that the four distribution companies, Cesu, Wesco, Nesco and Southco, have been resorting to unannounced power cuts across the state.While in the state capital denizens are experiencing a minimum of two hours load shedding, in other parts of the state it is running up to several hours.
Senior officers with Gridco, the state’s sole bulk supplier of power, had over a week ago claimed that the electricity position would stabilize from the first week of December as the shortfall could be compensated through additional purchase from captive generating plants (CGPs).
The state government, in fact, has asked CGPs not to sell power outside the state. “We got 200 MW more power on Thursday from sources other than CGPs.We are tapping all possible sources and things should improve soon,” Gridco managing director Hemant Sharma said.