Less generation - longer power cuts in Haryana
Punjab Newsline Network
Sunday, 18 April 2010
By Vindo Kumar Gupta
KURUKSHETRA: The drop in thermal generation in the state has led to very long power cuts varying from 14 to 21 hours a day in the state making life of people miserable. People are threatening to agitate if there is no improvement in power supply.

The total thermal generation in the state was 1274 MW against installed capacity of 2630 MW. The shortage of power in the state is more than 301 lakh units against the supply of 578 lakh units

600 MW Khedar thermal unit which was supposed to supply 144 lakh units daily after commissioning has not touched this figure even once. The unit is now lying closed for the last 10 days and may take yet another week to revive.

Unit No. 1 and 7 of Panipat thermal plant are under shut down due to maintenance. Unit no 4 was closed due to turbine vibrations.

The 300 MW unit no 2 of Yamunanagar thermal plant is running on half load for the last one month after it was closed earlier for ESP problems. A senior engineer said that the performance of new units has not been satisfactory.

The cities are facing power cuts of more than 14 hours while villages hardly get three to four hour supply in a day. With the power going in morning and evening hour’s water supply to the cities and villages is affected.

The state government maintains that it will resort to power purchase to cope up with the further increase of power demand in paddy season.