Keeping an eye on upcoming panchayat elections in January and February amid rising power demand, the state government has ordered private power producers not to sell power outside the state for a period of four months till March.
“Under section 11 of the Electricity Act, we have instructed power producers not to sell power outside the state between December to March and have suggested them to increase power production,” Atanu Sabyasachi, state energy minister said.
The section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003 empowers state governments to order independent power producers to supply power to state grid whenever there is power crisis in the state. This provision has been also mentioned in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with different power producers setting up their in the state.
Though the Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco) officials are hopeful to meet average power requirement by first week of December, they are skeptical about fulfilling peak power demand, where the state is short of about 600 Mw due to lower power generation from hydro units along with technical problem in key thermal power stations.
All power distributing companies across the state have announced power supply cuts for two hours in urban areas and for three hours in rural areas for last two weeks as the state is currently drawing about 2,250 Mw power from different power generators, against the average electricity demand of 2,700 Mw.
Out of the 29 power producing contracts signed so far, only three units have started generation in the state. The state is currently getting about 700 Mw power from private producers Sterlite Energy, Arati Steel and Bhushan Steel and is also considering to buy another 150 Mw from Sterlite through the national grid network.
