Uttarakhand grapples with power shortage

Call it irony or fate but the state of Uttarakhand which has numerous hydroelectric power projects producing electricity itself facing power shortage.

The demand for electricity in the state has reached a record level of 45.5 million units. Whereas, the availability is only 38.5 million units. For this reason, apart from industrial and rural areas, preparations are being made to cut all cities, big and small, on Saturday. On Friday, there was a cut of six hours in industries, four to five hours in rural areas and two hours in cities including Jwalapur, Haldwani, Roorkee, Kashipur, Jaspur, Bajpur, Kaladhungi, Doiwala. Whereas, there was a cut of up to one hour in big cities. There was also power cut in some parts of Dehradun.

The state’s demand for Saturday is 45.5 MU. This is seven million units less electricity than the demand. Due to this, there can be a long power cut in most areas even today, due to which people may have to face a lot of problems. There may be a cut of five to six hours in rural areas, two to three hours in small towns and more than one hour in big cities. Whereas there may be power cut for eight to ten hours in furnace industries and six to eight hours in other industries. According to UPCL MD Anil Kumar, the state earlier used to get 7.5 MU of electricity from the gas plant which is completely closed. And this time the demand for five MUs has increased ahead of time due to increasing heat and thus the additional load of 12.5 MU has increased on the state. Earlier UPCL had to take only 3-4 MUs of electricity from the market. This time electricity has to be taken up to 15 MU, due to which there is a forced power cut.