State resorts to power banking

In an attempt to overcome acute power crisis in the state, the Orissa government has resorted to power banking measures.

As per this initiative, the state will draw power from other states to meet its demand during the shortage period and supply an equivalent quantity of power to them later when it has surplus availability.

Hence, the state owned Gridco has started drawing 145 Mw power from Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) and supplied it to the power distribution companies in the state.

Simultaneously, the state government has augmented generation of hydro power with the total generation from this sector reaching 650 Mw.

Generation of hydro power is continuously on the rise from 432 Mw on 29th March to 561Mw on 1st April. It further increased to 650 Mw yesterday.

The Captive Generating Plants (CGPs) were injecting about 350 Mw into the state Grid. Among the CGPs, ICCL is supplying 30 Mw and Nab Bharat Ventures Ltd, 68 Mw. Similarly, JSL is supplying 136 Mw and Vedant, 43 Mw. Besides, Aarti (28 Mw), Rourkela Steel Plant (10 Mw) and Nilachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (2 Mw) figure among other contributors to the state grid.

Sources said, the demand for power in the state during the peak time ranges from 3000 Mw to 3100 Mw and between 2400 and 2500 Mw during the off-peak hours. Though the total installed hydro electricity capacity is 2085 Mw, only about 155 Mw is generated during the off-peak hours and a little over 1000 Mw during the peak hours from this source.