Power-cut relief in Odisha during Festive Season

Bhubaneswar, Oct 10: The people of Odisha would get temporary relief from the ongoing power cuts as the state government on Friday said there would be no evening outages during the festive season.

Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das said power cut would continue during the day time from October 11 to November 15 while the department would not resort to load shedding in the evening time.

He said while the peak hour’s demand is 4,000 megawatt (Mw), there is a shortage of 400-450 Mw in the state.

“We are bringing power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) generating power in the state and different sources to meet the requirements. Besides, we are bringing power through power banking from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh to meet the demand during Puja season,” the minister said.

Das said the government was trying to meet the consumers’ demand during the festive season first and then it would decide next course of action over power cut after Puja. He said it would decide whether power cut would continue or not only after holding a review meeting likely to be held between November 5-10.

The Odisha government has signed MoUs with 29 independent power producers (IPPs) to set up thermal power plants having a total capacity of 37,440 Mw, of which the state share would be 6,141 Mw.

But, only four power producers — GMR Kamalanga, Sterlite Energy, Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd. and Ind Barath Energy (Utkal) Ltd. — have commissioned their projects while 20 projects are yet to commence construction work.

To meet the power demand, the state is getting power from the IPPs and captive generating plants, which are injecting about 650 Mw to the state grid while it is getting 370 Mw from Ib Thermal Power Station, 310 Mw from Talcher Thermal Power Station and 900 Mw from the centre.