Odisha reels under power crisis

Low water-level in reservoirs and technical snags in certain thermal electricity generation station have led to power crisis in Odisha, official sources said.
Odisha requires at least 3,000MW of power to meet its demands while only about 2550MW of electricity is now available, director (commercial) of Grid Corporation of Odisha (Gridco) P K Pradhan said.
Scarcity of power has forced Gridco to regulate electricity supply in the state, Pradhan said, adding, that the situation would be over if there is good amount of rainfall.
"The Gridco is taking steps to resolve the situation. We are drawing less power than our requirements from NTPC and other power stations that forced us to resort to temporary power supply regulation. We hope the situation may improve within two or three days," Pradhan said.

He also said that while the state was availing about 1,000 MW of power from hydro-power stations in July last year, this time it has come down to about 400 MW.
This apart, five units, one of in NTPC Kaniha, two of TTPS, Kahalgam (Bihar), Pharaka (WB), which usually provides 476MW electricity to Odisha, have remained non-functional for renovation work.
"We are unable to draw more power from the central pool," Pradhan said, adding that the Gridco was also facing problem in purchasing electricity from outside due to high cost.