To meet the summer power need of the state, Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco) has finalised agreements with the central electricity grid network Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), which will provide 200 MW energy from West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL) for a month starting April 1.
As per the power banking agreement, Gridco will return five per cent more power between August and September this year to PGCIL, which in turn will pay the power cost to WBSEDCL.
All these power transactions would be carried out by open access norms. If Gridco fails to return the required amount of power, then it will have to pay the equivalent amount of money, which will be billed at Rs 4.75 per unit. In case, the central grid expresses its inability to provide power to Gridco, then it will pay Gridco at Rs 2.25 per unit. Orissa has been grappling with power shortages since November 2011, with few state and private thermal power stations halting operation due to technical problems. Currently, Gridco gets about 2,300 MW power from its hydro and thermal stations, private power generators and from its share out of central government sponsored power stations.
Still, the power supply is 450 MW less than the average demand of 2,750 MW. Gridco has taken several steps to meet the demand gap such as buying power from energy exchanges, but had to switch for other less costlier route such as power banking due to its high debt burden.
In the power banking route, Orissa agreed to return power during August and September, even though there is no sign of production capacity rising in the foreseeable future in state-run power stations. But senior energy department officials said the state is betting on good monsoon rains in the upcoming rainy season, when it will be able to return the power from its surplus energy.
The state is currently drawing 250 MW energy from its hydro power stations, even though they have the potential to produce about 2,000 MW power.
All the reservoirs in the state at present have water levels only five to six per cent above minimum draw down levels (MDDL). Even though Orissa received ample rainfall towards the fag end of monsoon in 2011, it got limited rains in the south-western part where key hydro power stations are situated.
As hydro power production dropped amid temporary shutdown of couple of thermal power stations, the power distributing companies declared power cuts across the state, which is still in force.
