New Delhi: With many areas facing massive growing power cuts due to increased demand, Delhi government on Thursday asked the discoms to come out with their schedule of load shedding and adhere to it as far as possible.
At a meeting to review the deteriorating power situation, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit directed the CEOs of power distribution companies to stick to the schedule of power cuts.
"Right now the situation is not that bad. If it gets worse in a week or 10 days then we will switch off all the neon lights and close shops early. We have all plans in place. If and when required we'll do that," said she said.
Meanwhile, the city continued to reel under massive power cuts in the sweltering heat because of the gap between demand and supply.
Many areas across the city went without power for five to eight hours because of load-shedding.
"There was no power in our area for at least seven hours. It is a hellish experience," said a young IT professional, Vivek Garg, who stays in East Delhi.
A senior official said the peak demand during the day was recorded at 4089 MW while the shortfall was about 214 MW. He said several hydro power stations in neighbouring states had to stop their operation because of shortage of water which affected the Northern power grid.
"Under frequency of the Grid was creating problems in the supply of power. Many neighbouring states also overdrew power, which resulted some problem in the grid," the official said.
A similar power scenario exists in other states which draw electricity from the Northern Grid, he said.
Protests against power cuts on Thursday spilled over to the streets. The protests saw people pelting stones at buses in a south Delhi locality while traffic was disrupted in some parts of east Delhi.
Satpura Thermal Power Station power reduced by half
Betul, Madhya Pradesh: Power generation in the Satpura Thermal Power Station (STPS) in Betul district's Sarni Nagar has reduced to half due to lack of adequate water in the Satpura reservoir.
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"While the total capacity of electricity generation in STPS is 1142 MW, it is producing only 500 MW power from its eight of the nine units as there is little water in the Satpura reservoir which supplies water to it," STPS officials said on Thursday.
Another unit having a capacity of 62.5 MW is closed for last 23 days for maintenance and probably it would also resume power generation within next three days, they said.
All the seven units are generating less electricity than their capacity as there is inadequate water in the Satpura reservoir due to scanty rainfall last year, sources said.
At present STPS is generating 642 MW less power than its capacity, they added.
A total of 32,000 liter water per minute is needed for cooling the plant's machines but only 8000 to 10,000 liters water per minute is available for it from the reservoir causing less generation of power, they added.
CAG reports staggering power distribution losses in UP
Allahabad: Official auditor Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has detected lapses in the functioning of state-owned electricity distribution company in eastern Uttar Pradesh that resulted in distribution losses of more than Rs 600 crore.
The lacunae in the functioning of the Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd, a subsidiary of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), was revealed in a report by the CAG for 2007-08.
The report noted that distribution losses of the Varanasi headquartered company, which is responsible for electricity distribution in 21 districts of eastern UP, for the period between 2004-05 and 2007-08 worked out to a staggering 13,843.73 million units (MU).
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This is nearly 2,000 MU higher than the tolerance limit set by the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission, said a report by Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
The report has blamed the energy losses, which have been defined as "the difference between the energy purchased and the energy sold to the consumers", on the absence of "adequate transformation capacity at the sub-stations so as to avoid the problem of voltage dropping and frequent tripping which causes excessive energy losses."
"There was a gap of 2,566.837 Mega Volt Ampere (MVA) of transformation capacity in comparison to connected load of the consumers at the end of March, 2008, which led to overloading on the system and caused loss of energy , the report said.
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Monsoon delay threatening Chhattisgarh paddy output
The delay in the arrival of monsoon is threatening paddy cultivation in over 3.5 million hectares in Chhattisgarh, officials said.
Last year, paddy yield was around 57 million tonnes in the state. In all likelihood, it is going to be much less this season.
"The longer heat wave spell due to delay in monsoon will result in several fallouts, including pest attacks and wilting ofpaddy seeds, and production may drop substantially," Pankaj Oudhia, an agriculture scientist based said.
"If monsoon continues to elude the state for one or two more weeks, the output will be just 25 percent of the estimated figure," Oudhia added.
Paddy cultivation, which normally takes 120 days in the state, needs proper irrigation throughout that period.
About 80 per cent of the state's 20.08 million people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.
"Last year, the monsoon hit Chhattisgarh by June 10 and we had good rainfall in the second week of the month. But this year the story is totally different and the state is heading towards a drought-like situation," a senior official at the Directorate of Agriculture said.
The government has set a target of 65.54 million tonnes of kharif crop production - at about 1,850 kilograms per hectare - this season. However, this target is unlikely to be met due to delay in monsoon.
In 2008, the state had sown paddy in an area of 3.61 million hectares and the output stood at a little over 57 million tonnes.
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