Power supply situation in west Odisha back to normal

Power supply problems in western Odisha, that started Saturday evening after heavy thunderstorm, have been resolved as most of the affected power generating stations and broken down wire cables have been repaired, said Gridco Ltd, the state-run power trader.

Heavy thunderstorm played havoc Saturday night as many 133 Kv lines and 33 Kv lines snapped in the transmission route connecting Rourkela with Jharsuguda, the two industrial hubs of the state. Due to sudden fall of frequency in the system, many generating units in the area such as Burla Hydro power station, Ib valley thermal power station and Vedanta power plant got automatically isolated.

"We are currently running two units of Burla, and all units of Ib thermal plants of Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC). Vedanta units started operation in the afternoon only. We have also restored power transmission connections in major areas. The rest of the areas can have power supply by tonight," said P K Pradhan, commercial director, Gridco.

Restoring the operation of power generating units was solved with supply of start-up power from other generating stations, but transmission remained difficult as in many areas wire cables were cut off from main lines due to strong wind and fallen trees.

The power supply failure had affected Sundergarh, Jharsuguda,Bolangir and Kalahandi districts while Subarnapur, Debagarh and Sambalpur districts were partially affected. Many sponge iron factories, electric arc furnaces and steel mills remained closed for the day due to this problem, affecting about Rs 50 crore business.

"All the industrial units related to iron and steel suffered due to power problems. Besides, damage to property of many factories on account of thunderstorm is also huge. Most of the shades, godowns of the plants are partially or fully damaged," said Santosh Parikh, a sponge iron factory owner in Sundergarh district.