Date:26/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/26/stories/2006082616220400.htm

New Delhi

Power cuts return to haunt Delhiites

Staff Reporter

Large parts experience unscheduled power cuts

NEW DELHI: After a few days of sufficiency, power shortage has returned to haunt the Capital all over again. On Friday, large parts of the Capital experienced long unscheduled power cuts as load-shedding remained at the level of around 400 MW for the major part of the day and crossed the 600 MW mark for some time as well.

With Delhi clocking its maximum demand in the evening, sources said more cuts were in store later at night in South Delhi and East Delhi in particular.

A Delhi Government spokesperson said while the demand of 3,100 MW had been met during the day, the average load-shedding was around 400 MW and on the higher side it had crossed the 600 MW mark for some time. While the situation was bad as the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri plant in Himachal Pradesh -- from which Delhi gets 342 MW of power -- had to be shut down again due to a high silt level in the water, the spokesperson said the situation was expected to improve with a 210 MW unit of Badarpur Thermal Power Station expected to resume power production in the next couple of days. This unit had been closed about two months ago following hydrogen coolant leakage.

As for the closure of the gas-based power stations, the official said it was still not known when the gas supplies would resume to these plants. Following the floods in Gujarat, gas supplies had been hampered and as a result two 47 MW units of Gas Turbine, and the 160 MW Pragati plant had been forced shut. Likewise, the flow of 26 MW power from the 200 MW Auriya Gas plant and 25 MW power from Dadri Gas plant had been disrupted due to lack of gas supply.

Intriguingly, while the peak load-shedding on Thursday had crossed the 800 MW mark, the Delhi Transco Limited website continued to show the figure as just 576 MW, saying that this level was reached at 8 p.m. Of this load-shedding, it said, 359 MW was in the areas served by BSES while 75 MW was in the NDPL areas, with the rest being due to under frequency.

Such being the case, a power distribution company official said the demand for power was bound to go up further during the evening and with the supply situation being abysmally poor, Delhiites would have to endure more power cuts in the days to come.