RSP is losing production worth around Rs 2.7 crore per day because of the power problems. "We are facing serious power problems, and have been almost crippled by power failures, frequency fluctuations and unreliability of the grid," RSP managing director RC Jha told `The Financial Express'.

The grid failure and unreliability in frequency started in early April when two Talcher units (2x500mw) of National Thermal Power Corp tripped and two 440kv interconnecting transmission lines collapsed in a storm.

For RSP, the power troubles come at a time when it is planning to ride the positive trends in the steel market by increasing production from 1.2 million tonnes last fiscal to 1.5mt during this fiscal.

RSP has been incurring losses for several years and has started turning around by achieving operating profits for the last three months of the 1999-2000 fiscal. In March, it earned an operating profit of Rs 30 crore and was expecting to earn operating profit for the whole 2000-01 fiscal.

"In April there have been no less than 38 occasions when the problem of grid frequency almost crippled production in our plant," Jha said. It has affected the production units particularly in continuous casting, hot strip mill, oxygen plant and compressor houses of the steel plant. Besides it has also resulted in failure of computers and loss of power generation in its captive power plant, heavy loss of production affecting the health and safety of electrical equipment of various units.

Admitting that the Orissa grid "is now running at a very low grid security level," the member secretary of Eastern Regional Electricity Board, BK Mishra, said, "any small shock is having serious impact on the grid as well as on supply of quality power."

He said one unit of Talcher has been restored, but restoration of the other unit is not expected in the next eight to ten days.

The shortfall in generation at Talcher could not be met by importing power from other states as two 440kv interstate transmission lines - one between Jamshedpur in Bihar and Rourkela in Orissa, and the other between Kolaghat in West Bengal and Rengali in Orissa - have collapsed due to storms. uFour transmission towers, which collapsed near Chakradharpur on Jamshedpur- Rourkela line, are being restored by Power Grid Corp of India using emergency restoration service towers. "This line is likely to be restored in a couple of days," Mishra said.

As for the Kolaghat-Rengali line, he said, power is likely to be restored in 15 days.