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Rajasthan facing power crisis

Special Correspondent

State facing difficulty in getting its share of power from Central pool due to an upsurge in demand in northern States

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Government on Thursday resorted to load-shedding in the urban areas to tackle the situation arising out of a sharp decline in the availability of electricity by 1.20-crore units per day. The State is facing difficulty in getting its full share of power generated by the Central projects in view of an upsurge in demand in the wake of insufficient rains in northern parts of the country.

The Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam has initiated steps for purchasing power from other States and announced that load-shedding would be stopped as soon as additional electricity is available. It has pointed out that overdrawing of power from the Central Grid is not possible because of its frequency plummeting to 49 Hertz.

According to the official sources here, the demand for power in the State has increased to 9.80-crore units per day following deficient rainfall during August against the availability of 8-crore units per day. An unprecedented increase in the demand, crossing the figure of 25,000 MW, has been reported in the entire northern region towards the end of monsoon.

The load-shedding will facilitate unhindered supply of power for five hours a day to the agricultural consumers and six hours a day in the single phase to the rural areas, so as to save the kharif crops. A restriction on the decorative lighting at the Government buildings has also been imposed with immediate effect, while the power supply to industries will be stopped during peak hours in the evening.

The load-shedding will be carried out for two hours a day in Jaipur, three hours at the divisional headquarters, and four hours at the district headquarters and all towns with a population of more than 5,000. However, there were complaints of extension of power cut by up to an hour on the first day on Thursday in several localities in Jaipur, including Jawahar Nagar, where The Hindu office is situated.

Official sources - while providing details of the reduction in the availability of electricity from the Central units where Rajasthan has a share - stated that four 250 MW units of Nathpa Jhakri had been closed down due to excess silt in water, while three units of 500 MW each in the Rihand project were generating power at 30 per cent less than their capacity due to paucity of coal.

Similarly, six 60 MW units of the Pong plant and six 165 MW units of the Dehar plant were not generating full quantity of electricity. The Singrauli unit of 500 MW capacity has been non-operational since July because of a technical snag in its turbine. Besides, two units of 250 MW each at the Suratgarh power plant in the State are presently closed for annual maintenance.

The sources pointed out that the State Government had provided relief to the agricultural and domestic consumers in 2004-05 by spending Rs. 550 crores to obtain power from other sources. Though the purchase of power is difficult this year as it is not available anywhere, efforts at the high level are on to obtain electricity from other States.

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