Gridco Blocks Transfer Of Surplus Power To South

Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco) will continue to oppose transfer of surplus power from the eastern region to be the deficient southern region.

Gridco isolated itself 11 times in the past two months to check the flow of power to south. This has put the operation of power system in the east in a jeopardy since it can lead to a total collapse of the eastern grid.

Gridco is insisting that it would not allow the transfer of power till the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Boards clears its arrears amounting to Rs 23 crore. APSEB, on the other hand, claims that Gridco owes it Rs 53 crore.

Eastern grid has a surplus of 250 mw. If the surplus power is not evacuated by the load despatch centres, it can cause a fall in the power frequency which in turn could result in the tripping of generating stations and the collapse of the grid.

The PowerGrid Corporation of India, which has taken over operation of the grid from the regional load dispatch centre (RLDC), has not been able to resolve the issue. Union power secretary P Abraham has asked the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to tackle this situation at the earliest. Of the surplus 250 mw from the eastern region, CEA has decided to allocate 100 mw to the north-eastern region and the balance to the southern region.

The number of times Gridco has taken this step in such a short time shows that the regulator of the grid has no control over the corporation, said D P Sinha, member (grid operations) of CEA. He said differences among participants in a grid should not show in the operations as this puts the entire system at peril.