NEW DELHI: Alarmed by a looming power crisis, chief ministers of UP and Kerala held emergency meetings even as concerns were raised over industry suffering losses in Punjab due to unscheduled power cuts for 4-5 hours every day.
Contrary to Union power minister Raj Kumar Singh’s claim that there was no power crisis in the country due to coal shortage, NDA ally Nitish Kumar on Monday said there was a problem in supply of sufficient quantity of electricity to the state.
In UP, Yogi Adityanath convened a high-level meeting with the UP Power Corporation Limited and officials of various discoms in Lucknow. According to reports, as against a demand of around 18,000MW, the state has been able to wheel in around 14,000MW, forcing unscheduled rostering. Yogi said that the power crisis should be resolved in view of festivals.
“Power cuts are causing huge production losses. Industries which require a continuous process, such as steel or plastic, have failed to run due to failure of continued supply by PSPCL,” Federation of Punjab Small Industries Association president Badish Jindal said.
The state-run power discom was forced to purchase around 1,500MW of power for Rs 14.46 per unit. On Sunday and Saturday, it had bought at Rs 11.6 and Rs 13 a unit.
Kerala has decided not to impose load-shedding in view of online classes. If 300MW can be obtained from outside, the state can go without load shedding till October 19 but will need Rs 2 crore per day.
In Patna, Nitish Kumar told media persons, “It is true that there is a problem. It is true that we (Bihar) are not getting whatever electricity is provisioned from the NT-PC and other companies. There are some reasons due to which such a situation has arisen. It’s not only in Bihar, it’s everywhere.”