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State reeling under power shortage

By Staff reporter

GUWAHATI, April 3 � Deficit rainfall in the NE region has led to a severe power shortage in the State in this pre-monsoon season. The Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) said in a statement here this evening that short supply of power is anticipated to be between 250MW and 300 MW during the peak load hours, that is, 5pm to 11 pm, while the shortfall during the off peak load hours is anticipated to be 281 MW till April 12.

Against its allocation of 380 MW of hydel power from the central sector power companies during the peak load hours, the State is expected to get only 157 MW of power till April 12. It is expected to get only 5 MW of hydel power from these hydel stations, against its quota of 117 MW, during the off peak load hours till the said date.

Meanwhile, one unit of Karbi Langpi Hydro Electric Project is undergoing maintenance and there is very low water level in the dam of the project due to scanty rainfall. The project is now generating around 50 MW of power during the peak load hours, said the ASEB in its statement.

It needs mention here that between March 1 and April 2, the deficit in the rainfall amount in Assam and Meghalaya Meteorological (Met) Sub-Division of the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) here, is found to be 79 per cent.

Arunachal Pradesh Met Sub-Division received 33 per cent less rainfall during this period, while Nagaland-Manipur-Mizoram and Tripura Met Sub-Division recorded a deficit rainfall of 69 per cent during this period, RMC sources said.

ASEB sources said that the dismal power scenario has been aggravated by the 400 Kv Balipara-Maldah power line of the Power Grid Corporation Ltd (PGCL) undergoing maintenance. The maintenance of this power line is going for the past about ten days.

This development has reduced 50 per cent power availability from outside the State power markets. This has prevented the Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd�s (APDCL�s) purchase of 150 MW of power from outside the State markets during the peak load hours.

The APDCL has been making purchase of this amount of power for the past about one and half a month. It is also purchasing about 50 MW of power from outside the State markets during the off peak load hours. The maintenance of the PGCL power line has also caused a constraint in the purchase of this 50 MW of power, sources said.

To make things worse, insufficient gas supply is feared to reduce power supply from the central sector Kathalguri and Tripura thermal power stations to 144 MW against the State�s quota of 202 MW during the peak load hours, the ASEB said.

The ASEB in its press statement said supply of gas from the Oil India Ltd has been reduced for the past few days on account of local agitation around the OIL installations.

The APDCL thermal units have also been expected to generate 150 MW of power during the peak load hours and 130 MW of power during the off peak load hours respectively during the above period, against their combined installed capacity of 250 MW, the ASEB statement said.

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