Fans off at noon, and darkness after sundown: Raj Bhavan’s decision to suffer without power left West Bengal’s Left Front annoyed and puzzled.
When Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi announced Tuesday that he would share the “load-shedding” travails of less-fortunate citizens this blistering summer and give up the exalted status of the city’s No. 1 address for one hour in the afternoon and one hour in the evening, he timed the decision badly, as it turned out.
With power demand growing at an unprecedented pace, various areas of Kolkata had been subjected to short power cuts during April -? the month of school examinations — and even last week as private utility CESC struggled to meet demand.
But the situation has improved vastly this week, power minister Mrinal Banerjee and CESC said Wednesday.
Banerjee told reporters at Writers’ that the power is quite good now, and will improve further over the next few days.
Asked if he would brief the governor, Banerjee said: “No, I will not meet him to explain the power situation.”
CESC officials said its three units — Budge Budge, Titagarh, and Southern Generating Station — generated a total of 985-990mw, beyond their combined capacity of 975mw.
Unlike in the recent past, when the state agencies were also struggling to meet demand, CESC has been assured of 520mw from West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd. The peak demand today was 1420mw.
WBSEDCL officials also confirmed that generation was absolutely okay Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Raj Bhavan switched off all power at 1.30pm for an hour. The sprawling three-storeyed edifice, with a floor area of 84,000sqft, as well as its associated buildings, draws from a 700kw line against a normal household’s 2-3kw.
Subhas Chakraborty, the transport minister, said: “If he wants to sacrifice, there is nothing we can do.”
“He should have done this during the Madhyamik examinations, when the crisis was at its height,” he said.
The state had suffered for around two months when five units with a combined capacity of 890mw going out of operation because of technical issues or problems with coal supply.
West Bengal Power Development Corp Ltd had taken out four units with a combined capacity of 640mw from March 7. WBPDCL has a total capacity of 3,800mw.
Durgapur Projects Ltd was generating around 250mw, against its installed capacity of 410mw, while NTPC Ltd had to shut down a 500mw unit at its 1600mw Farakka plant.
All this had led to an average peak shortfall of over 850mw in WBSEDCL’s command area and more than 350mw in CESC’s area for around two months.