The Sunday night blackout in the city for several hours may have been blamed on a ?freak accident? but the power woes are far from over. Even as the temperature touches 40 degrees and beyond, a demand-supply mismatch has led to long power cuts all over the city-and state-for the whole week. And the blame game has already started.
According to a power department official, while peak demand in the state has grown by around 800 mw in the past one year, capacities have not gone up substantially, though there has been an average generation growth of 9% in the last five years. With the mercury soaring, there has been a huge increase in usage of air conditioners and coolers both in industrial and domestic consumption, taking the peak demand to 5,000 mw.
MK Dey, chairman West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDCL), told FE that while the thermal units under the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd (WBPDCL) has a total generation capacity of 3,740 mw, it wasn?t generating more than 2,600 mw in the last seven days.
?As per the conditions of the thermal units, WBPDCL should generate at least 3,230 mw, which is not happening for reasons beyond my knowledge,? Dey said. State power secretary Sunil Mitra insisted that low supply of coal to WBPDCL was leading to massive power cuts. But Eastern Coal Fields rubbished his claim, arguing that the Coal India subsidiary has supplied more than 100% of the linkage quantity.
N Roy, technical secretary to the chairman of ECL, said while the linkage quantity for the month of April till date works up to 3,29,000 tonne, it has supplied 3,30,600 tonne. Although the state power department has been blaming ECL for the thermal units? critical coal stock condition, Roy said coal stocks were enough to last six days in the Kolaghat thermal power station, 20 days at Bakreswar thermal unit, nine days each at Santhaldihi and Sagardighi thermal power station and a day at Bandel.
Roy said if stocks fall under three days, then it?s a ?super critical stock condition? and that only Bandel should be a worry. However, with polls on the radar, CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has asked Mitra to initiate immediate action so as to get rid of load shedding, which might reflect on the party?s performance in the upcoming elections. But state power department officials told FE the way peak demand has gone up in the last one week ? from 4,000-4,200 mw to 5,000 mw ? it will be impossible to match demand and supply.
According to WBSEDCL officials, the peak shortfall is around 1,500 mw. With five units of Durgapur Projects Ltd, one each of Sagardighi and Bakraswer, two units of Mejia (under Damodar Valley Corporation) closed and technical snags at CESC, the power situation won?t get any better in the next few days. Even if all the units operate at full capacity, the shortfall will hover around 250-300 mw, unless there are new capacities.
WBPDCL has planned for four projects-Katwa and Sagardighi thermal power plants (1,330 mw each), 660-mw Bakraswer Power Plant and an additional 250-mw unit at Santhaldih-all to be implemented during the 11th Plan period but there are doubts whether the plants will be able to meet the deadline.