BHUBANESWAR: Repeated requests by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the Union Ministry of Power for additional allocation of power from the Central pool has fallen on deaf ears. Facing power crisis for more than two years now, the State Government has been demanding additional allocation of 500 MW from the unallocated share of the Central sector. Apart from writing letters to the Centre, the Chief Minister has taken up the issue several times during the last two years with Union Minister of Power Sushil Kumar Shinde to bail out the State. In a recent letter to Shinde, the Chief Minister also reminded him the State’s demand for additional allocation of 500 MW of power from NTPC’s Super Thermal Power Station Stage-II at Kaniha. The State is entitled for its share from the Kaniha power plant even though it had surrendered its entitlement for historical reason, Naveen argued. ‘’I request you to advise the authorities concerned to take the required steps to implement decisions expeditiously,’’ Naveen told Shinde in a letter on April 7. But the State Government is yet to get any response.“Minimum courtesy demands that the Centre should acknowledge the Chief Minister’s official communication,” a senior officer of the Energy Department said. With many parts of the State experiencing heatwave conditions, the acute shortage of power has led to load restriction making life miserable. While the day demand for power has gone up to 2,900 MW, the evening peak demand has crossed 3,300 MW. Faced with a shortage of about 700 MW, the State has resorted to overdrawing of power from the Eastern Region Grid to make up the shortfall.Despite poor hydro situation in major reservoirs, the Water Resources Department has been asked to release water from the reservoirs for generation of hydro power during peak hours. The Ib Thermal Power Station of the State-run Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) is providing more than 300 MW despite the coal supplied by the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited being of very poor quality. While one unit of NTPC’s Kahalgaon Thermal Power Station in Bihar was shut down due to shortage of coal, the third unit of Farakka Super Thermal Power Station in West Bengal went out of Eastern Grid on Sunday night due to technical problem. The net loss to the Eastern Region Electricity Board is 800 MW. The State-wise allocation from the Central pool is made as per the availability of power, Gridco sources said.
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