Orissa lifts load restrictions for power consumers

The Orissa government today lifted the load restriction imposed on both domestic and industrial consumers about two months back.

The decision to ease load restriction was taken in a high level meeting chaired by the state energy minister, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak.

The government had restricted power supply to domestic and industrial sectors since March 5, 2010 due to acute shortage of power in the state.

The regulators, the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC), had given the green signal to the government to go ahead with the measure.

“With better management of hydro power generation, the government would be able to meet the demand of the consumers. So it has been decided to lift the load restriction from today”, Nayak told the media persons.

All the power distribution companies have been asked to enforce the directive and the government would monitor the situation. However, in locations where there is capacity constraint in terms of grid, there may be some power cut, he added. These locations include Kesinga, Kharial, Junagrh, Soro, Nuapatna, Bhanjanagar among others.

Energy secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena said, the average demand for power in Orissa is hovering around 2600 Mw to 2650 Mw. He said, the situation has improved with hydro generation stepped up to about 800 Mw from 490 Mw. Besides, the captive generation plants (CGPs) are contributing about 400 Mw to the state grid.

The leading CGP contributors are ICCL (31 Mw), Nav Bharat Ventures (70 Mw), JSL (138Mw), Nilachal Ispat Nigam (9 Mw), INDAL (40 Mw), Vedanta (295), Nalco (17 Mw) and Bhushan Steel (2 Mw).

The state sector thermal power plants namely Talcher Thermal Power Plant (TTPS) and Ib Thermal Power Plant (ITBP) are generating about 800 Mw. Besides, the Central sector thermal power plants are contributing about 700 to 725 Mw.

“We preserved water when irrigation requirement was much. As a result, the level of water in different reservoirs of the state is better than the corresponding period of the last year”, Jena added.

It may be noted, the water level in Hirakud reservoir is 5 feet higher than the last year. Similarly, the water levels in Rengali and Indravati and Upper Kolab reservoirs are 10 feet, 12 feet and three feet higher than the marks recorded in the corresponding period of the last year respectively.