Companies cannot sell power outside, says U'khand govt

With Uttarakhand facing severe power crunch, the state government has disallowed small hydropower projects (SHPs) to sell power outside the hill state.

“We are not permitting the SHPs (less than 25 Mw) to sell power outside the state,” a top government official said. However, the government has given reprieve to the big companies which have already developed or are in the process of developing hydel projects having installed capacity of more than 25 Mw.

The move follows pleas by several SHPs, mostly by private developers to sell power outside the state.

The Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) had sought guidelines from the government on an application by Vanala hydel project (15 Mw), which is situated in Chamoli district of the state. The Him Urja Pvt Ltd, which is developing the Vanala project wanted to sell power to the Power Trading Corporation (PTC).

Similarly, other companies like Swasti Power Engineering Ltd and Polyplex Corporation Ltd had also sought permission for the sale of power outside the state from their hydel projects.

In reply to the UERC’s letter, Additional Secretary, Energy Saurav Jain said the state, which was facing shortage of power, would not allow the sale of power outside.

With water discharge in most of rivers falling during the winter, Uttarakhand is facing severe power shortage these days as the demand-supply gap grows. This has forced the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) to resort to four to eight hours rostering in the state due to which industrial production is suffering.