Santanu Saraswati
Kolkata, April 26—If you are perspiring with no electricity for long hours, it’s better not to blame the utilities for this. Just blame it on the generation companies for leaving you helpless in blazing summer days.
Though the state power department is calling it as an abnormal rise in demand for electricity, as compared to last year and the private power utility, CESC authorities blaming it on irresponsible use of air-conditioning machines by domestic consumers, it has been seen that the state as well as the city has witnessed only 10 per cent rise in demand for electricity, just a two per cent rise than last year’s increasing figure. The demand for electricity in the state is 4700-mega watts, while it is 1510-mega watts in CESC areas. Last year it was 4300-mega watts in state board areas and 1430-mega watts in Kolkata and adjoining areas.
Be it due to short supply of fossil fuels from the coal supplying agencies, or frequent breakdowns in thermal power generation units, there has been a considerable fall in total generation, even after units like Purulia Pump Storage, Sagardighi thermal power generation unit, Teesta II hydel power unit, the unit VII of Durgapur Projects Limited or National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)’s Farakka unit started commercial generation. The state power department runs all the four units of Purulia Pump Storage, only in the peak hours, and that too, only two out of four. Reason: poor water supply. Sagardighi and DPL’s unit VII suffer frequent breakdowns as the Chinese technology yet to settle. And no body knows when CESC’s third unit at Budge Budge would start commercial generation.
“State generation units are presently generating almost 600-mega watts less than normal summer day-generation in last year. DPL is generating only 80-mega watts, 400-mega watts less than its normal generation capacity. And two major units at Farakka are lying non-functional. When CESC was told to build up an ultra mega thermal power plant at Balagarh in Burdwan district in late 80’s the private power utility declined thinking of lower profit earning. Now they are having only 870-mega watt to meet up 1510-mega watts of demand for electricity,” CITU secretary and president of Electricity Employees Federation of India (EFI) and the SEB Employees Union (SEBEU), Prasanta Nandi Chowdhury, told Hindustan Times, on Sunday.
The CESC authority, on the other hand, argued that the company has a power purchase agreement with the state board for which it has to buy electricity from the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL), even if it has 2000-mega watts generation capacity. “It took years to get permission for setting up our second and third units at Budge Budge as we have to buy 400 to 500-mega watts of electricity daily. Electricity can’t be stored. What we will do with the rest of our generation?” a CESC high official said.
On Sunday, however, except few areas like Kasba and Garia, there were no reports of power cuts in CESC area, even though the power utility claimed that there was shedding only for industrial consumers. The state board areas in the districts went through power cuts for three hours in rotational basis. Worst sufferer were, as usual, the north Bengal districts, where consumers reported to undergo through shedding for five hours. CESC report said it has a shortfall of 40-mega watts for industrial consumers while state board had a shortfall of 350-mega watts on Sunday.
EOM
santanu_saraswati@hotmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment