This piece of news could weaken further West Bengal chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya?s efforts to woo India Inc into the state. This time, it?s not Mamata Banerjee but the grim power situation that will add to the woes of the state, which is still trying to come to terms post-Singur. With a widening demand-supply mismatch, West Bengal is likely to become a power-starved state soon and there is no possibility that the situation will improve in the next five years.
According to state power department officials, while peak demand in the state has grown by around 500 mw in the past one year, capacities have not gone up substantially. This is despite a generation growth of average 9% in the last five years.
But why the state is in for such a bleak power situation? Picture this. Although, WBPDCL has planned for four projects ?Katwa & Sagardighi thermal power plants (1,330 mw each), 660-mw Bakraswer Power Plant and an additional 250-mw unit at Santhaldih? to be implemented during the 11 th Plan period, it is doubtful whether the plants will be able to meet the deadline. For, except the additional unit in Santhaldih, none of the projects have attained financial closure as yet. Moreover, the Katwa project is in uncertainties due to problems in land acquisition. WBPDCL officials feel the Katwa project might not come up at all as the government is not eager to take any aggressive steps for acquiring 1,000 acre for it.
But what could light up the state?Universal Success? proposed 10,000 – mw power plant ? may get delayed as it has no technology tie-ups as of now. However, the company, promoted by NRI Prasoon Mukherjee, has signed an MoU with the West Bengal government last week.
Leave aside project implementation hassles, coal supply is another issue that is casting shadow over the existing plants.
?Bengal power plants are hit by the coal linkage panel?s recent decision to reduce coal supplies to WBPDCL by 2.5 lakh tonne at 8.61 lakh tonne, against a requirement of 16 lakh tonne per month. Although WBPDCL gets 3.5 lakh tonne coal from its captive mines and is currently importing around 50,000 tonne per month, the huge shortfall is leading to low generation, affecting peak demand shortfall of around 500-550 mw across the state. Even the central utility NTPC Ltd has denied (or was it denied?) supply of excess power,? said WBPDCL chairman and managing director S Mahapatra.