Jharkhand power board holds surplus power to meet state demand

Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) holds enough power to cater to the demands of the state. This disclosure was made before a bench of Chief Justice Prakash Tatia and Justice D N Upadhaya in Jharkhand High Court by Jharkhand State Electricity Regulatory Commission (JSERC) recently during hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by M S Mittal.

The court expressed its surprise when the advocate for JSERC made this disclosure. However, the JSERC advocate added that demand of the state could not be fulfilled due to loss of power in transmission.

The bench directed the commission to order the power board to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the consumers.

However, the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the year ended 31 March, 2010 on government of Jharkhand clearly said that “the average electricity requirement in Jharkhand in 2005-06 was 5,344 Million Units (MUs) of which only 2,065MUs were generated leaving a shortfall of 3,279 MUs which works out to 61.36 per cent of the requirement. Similarly, the electricity requirement in 2009-10 was 6,833 MU against which the energy actually available from generation was 2,945 MU, the shortfall being 3,888 MU i.e., 56.9 per cent of the requirement.

The CAG report further stated that the total installed power generation capacity in the state was 1,390 Mega Watt (MW) (derated capacity 1,320 MW) in 2005-06 which remained the same at the end of 2009-10.In consequence of the present power situation, Jharkhand is now fully dependent on the supply of power from the Central pool comprising Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).Official sources of the power utility said the power rates of the JSEB were not properly revised for last 10 years.

However, this year the regulatory commission (JSERC) had approved a marginal increase, the rates was still to be cheapest in the country.