Orissa to borrow 300 MW to ease its power crisis

BHUBANESWAR - Orissa plans to borrow at least 300 megawatts of electricity from three states to ease its power crisis caused due to the scanty rains last year, an official said Thursday.

“We are in talks with the governments of Assam, Uttarakhand and Punjab and they have assured to provide us about 300 MW power daily from April 1,” a state energy department official told IANS.

“They have assured us to provide the power on the condition that they will get it back when the situation in our state improves in July-August,” he said.

The demand for electricity in Orissa has gone up to more than 3,000 MW during peak hours, the official said, adding that there was a daily shortage of about 400 to 500 MW power.

The state has been witnessing power cut for more than two hours every day since the past over two weeks as the generation from its hydro power plants has come down to 300 MW and it is getting only 2,000 MW power from other sources.

Since March 9, the government has been reducing power supply to industries by up to 25 percent to deal with the shortage. It has also asked industries not to use electricity for at least one day in a week. The power cuts have led to protests from both industries and the people.

The state government this week asked the central government to allocate at least 500 MW of power daily from the unallocated share of the central generating stations till the situation improves, he said.