A power surplus state till recently, Orissa has been afflicted by an acute crisis which forced it to purchase electricity at a much higher rate.
The government is making an additional expenditure of about Rs 10 crore everyday towards purchase of electricity from different sources to meet the shortfall, a senior official said.
"We have already spent more than Rs 100 crore for purchase of electricty from different sources within a span of 10 days," Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Grid Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Gridco), C J Venugopal told PTI adding that the Corporation had urged the state government to reimburse the spending.
Orissa, which was a power surplus state till mid-June, suddenly experienced electricity shortage with fall in generation in both its hydro and thermal power plants.
Against the peak requirement of 2900 MW, the state could get only 2000 MW from different sources, causing a shortfall of about 900 MW.
"While the Gridco is purchasing electricity at a price of nearly Rs 10 per unit, it was selling the same to the consumer at Rs 1.20 per unit, at much lower a price," said a senior Gridco Manager.
Orissa is, incidentally, the only state in the country which has not hiked power tariff for the last eight years. But Gridco was now faced with a huge financial burden.
"It is difficult for any corporation to undertake the kind of business Gridco has been doing ever since the power crisis hit the state," a Corporation official said.
When contacted, Energy Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak attributed the present crisis to the fall in water level in the state's seven reservoirs.
"Orissa used to get more than 800 MW of power from its seven hydel stations. But generation has fallen to only 250 to 300 MW now," Nayak said adding the crisis became acute when three units of different thermal plants also developed snags.
One unit each of the NTPC's Super Thermal Plant at Kaniha (200 MW) and one unit of the thermal plant of Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) at Ib Valley (210 MW) had developed problems while another 100 MW of power could not be drawn from the Talcher Thermal Power Station of NTPC at Talcher due to technical problems.
In its bid to overcome the crisis, the state government had, meanwhile, asked industries to reduce their consumption by 50 per cent while imposing power cut on general consumers during peak hours.
The situation, however, could ease somewhat with two private sector companies poised to commission their thermal units within the next three months, the minister said. Venugopal said the crisis would end soon as Gridco had arranged 900 MW of power from different sources.
While the state would get 330 MW of power through power banking system, it was allowed to draw additional 300 MW of power from the central grid, he said.
Besides, Gridco had also made an arrangement to avail 115 MW of power from Balco. "The purchase price could be around Rs 3.96 per unit," an official said.
"We have already started availing 230 MW of power from West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya through power banking system. Another 100 MW of power would be availed in a day or two," the official said.
Giving details of the deal, sources said Gridco had to purchase power at around Rs 10 per unit from the central grid while it was committed to return power though power banking system with five per cent more electricity.
"We will return power to the power bank in the period between September to February when reservoirs in Orissa remained filled," he said.
Orissa has an installed capacity of 2085 MW from hydel stations while its own thermal power unit at Ib Valley (210 X 2) and NTPC's power station at Talcher (460 MW and totally dedicated to state) have installed capacity of 880 MW. Orissa's share from the central sector happens to be 518 MW.