UPPCL claims better power availability this summer

Even as the mercury has already breached the 40 degree Celsius mark in Uttar Pradesh, the state power utility has claimed better power availability this summer compared to last year.

“Compared to the total availability of 155 million units per day duiring 2009, the total availability this year is around 171 million units,” UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) CMD Navneet Sehgal told Business Standard.

171 million units would roughly correspond to 6,500 Mw.

“While, we are getting 300 Mw from the first unit of Reliance Power’s Rosa Power Project at Shahjahanpur, the second 300 Mw unit will start power generation soon. Besides, the 250 Mw plant at Pariccha will start generating from May 2010,” he claimed.

Apart from massive import from the central sector to match heightened demand for power during summer months, UPPCL procures power from energy exchange and on bilateral basis from other states. Last year, it had signed an agreement with Himachal Pradesh for purchasing power during April 2009 at the rate of Rs 7.5 per unit. “Since, our power availability will improve by roughly 850 Mw during this season, there would not be any need to buy from the energy exchange,” he noted.

Sehgal said the power availability would be up by 40 per cent by March 2011. However, the restricted demand for power is up 13 per cent this year, which means extra power consumption vis-à-vis last year. This year, the demand is likely to increase to over 10,000 Mw against the availability of 7,000-7,500 Mw in the weeks to come.