State reels under power cuts
Tribune News Service

Panipat, January 10
Residents of the state have been facing long power cuts as power demand has increased due to drop in temperature. The power shortage has increased to more than 177 lakh units as restricted power demand has touched 850 lakh units.

Power cuts in the main cities have increased to 6 to 8 hours. Besides, water supply is also being affected due to power cuts. The agriculture sector gets power supply for just five hours a day and farmers have been protesting in various parts of state as they need water to sow wheat.

The closure of two thermal units in Panipat due to technical faults has worsened the situation. Unit 5 (210 MW) of the thermal plant has been shut down due to a problem in the control valve and 110 MW unit number 3 is down due to boiler leakage. According to sources, both the units would likely be revived on Monday.

Sources say the thermal plants of state produce 317 lakh units and the state is overdrawing 83 lakh units to tide over the present situation.

The power demand met during peak hours is 4,089 MW and there is a shortage of 511 MW during this time.

Meanwhile, coal stock in Panipat and Yamunanagar thermal plants was critical, sources said.

The Panipat thermal plant has 62,000 million tonnes of coal, which is sufficient for just three days. The reason behind the coal shortage is high generation. The Yamunanagar thermal plant has a coal stock of 41,000 MT which is sufficient for four days, sources say.