BHUBANESWAR: Good news for the State Government. After long persuasion, the Centre on Wednesday agreed to give 200 MW of power to the State from the plants of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The formal decision of the Centre to give power to the State from the NTPC's Kaniha plants was taken by the Union Power Ministry, a top official of the State Government's Energy Department told The Hindu .

PPA soon

The Union Power Ministry also directed NTPC authorities to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the State Government-run Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco) within seven days, the official said.

Expressing satisfaction over the Centre's decision, Energy Minister Surya Narayan Patro said there would not be any shortage of electricity in the State for the next few years. Stating that consumption of power was growing by 18 per cent in the State during the past three years, Mr. Patro said that now it would be easy to give power to new industries that were coming up in the State.

Consumption of power was also increasing due to progress of work under the rural electrification programme, he added. Though the State Government had been demanding power from the NTPC power generation units operating in the State since long, the Centre had been delaying the decision on one pretext or the other.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also took up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when the later visited the State a few months ago. Mr. Patro also raised the issue at the Power Ministers' conference in New Delhi recently.

Presently, the State is getting, on an average, 16,500 million units from the Central pool and hydro power units and thermal power plants operating in the State. Of this, some 14,000 million units are being used and the rest is being exported to other States.

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