Power shortage adds to people's woes under dry heat spell in UP

Lucknow, Apr 28 (UNI) Even as the mercury soars high, the power shortage in Uttar Pradesh adds to the woes of its residents with power rostering and unscheduled power cuts remain order of the day.

The dry heat spell refuses to relent, the huge gap bewteen power demand and supply poses problems in the State with most of the rural and urban areas facing acute power crisis. While the power supply in rural areas is far from satisfactory, the urban areas including major towns of the State are facing power cuts frequently.

Against peak hour demand of about 8200 MW in the State , the power generation in the state-run thermal power stations is at about 2300 MW. After adding about 400 MW of Hydro pwoer generation and import from central sector to the tune of 3000 MW, the gap of 1500 MW still standing tall on the face of authorities,leading to power cuts in the State, a UP State Power Generation Corporation spokesperson told UNI here this afternoon.

The reports reaching here at the State headquarters suggested that the normal life at most of the places had been thrown out of gear due to pwoer shortage as major towns of the UP had to go through power rostering up to eight hours with rural areas witnessing even worse situation.

According to the spokesperson, the situation would be slightly better when a 500 MW unit at Anapara started generation. The unit was out of steam due to 45 days overhauling shut down.

The spokesperson, however, admitted that the power situation is not likley to improve in near future as the thermal generation was stagnated below 2500 MW and no major augmentation was in the sight as far as additional power was concerned.

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