The Orissa government has no intention to charge higher tariff to the electricity consumers in the state even as it is preparing a contingency plan to tide over the power crisis.
The government intends to tap into all available sources, hydro and thermal generation, over drawal from the central pool, captive generating plants (CGPs) and power banking to meet the deficit situation, says state energy minister, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak.
Nayak said, the peak demand for power during last fiscal was 3020 Mw and it slightly went up to 3150 Mw between April-September this year with the average demand hovering at 2450 Mw.
After total electrification of the state, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has estimated the peak demand to increase to 4459 Mw in 2011-12 and further to 5812 by 2014-15.
This will require a total installed capacity of 8500 Mw. While the present installed capacity of the state is about 4000Mw, additional 4500Mw capacity is required to be attained to meet the target.
Nayak said, the state government has signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 21 Independent Power Producers (IPPs) which will make 5684 Mw power available to the state.
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Similarly, the state owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has decided to set up three thermal power projects with aggregate generation capacity of 7720 Mw.
The Union government is in the process of setting up a 4000 Mw Ultra Mega Power Plant (UMPP) at Bedabahal in Sundergarh district.
Two more locations are being identified for setting up of UMPPs.