Assam facing power crisis

Assam has been facing a power crisis since Thursday evening after five central sector power generating stations in the northeast region shut down due to technical problems.

According to officials of the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB), the state has been reeling under shortage of at least 500 MW of power, which has forced the company to resort to load shedding across the state to deal with the situation.

The situation is likely to improve slightly after the next 24 hours, the officials said.

"The shutdown by all these five power generating stations is not scheduled. We have been receiving only 82 MW of power from these sources in the last 24 hours against around 282 MW of power earlier," an officials said.

He added that the total demand for power in the state during peak load hour is about 1,200 MW. "At present we have about 700 MW of power available with us, and thus there is a shortfall of about 500 MW," he said.

"The situation is likely to be improve from tomorrow (Saturday) as one of the generating stations of Kopili Hydel project is expected to resume generation," he said.