Date:14/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/14/stories/2007111457611000.htm

National

Rajasthan buys power

Special Correspondent

JAIPUR: In an urgent action to offset the shortfall of electricity after the closure of six units of the Kota thermal power station, the Rajasthan Government on Tuesday purchased 1.55 crore units of power from other States to ensure uninterrupted supply to farmers. The State is already facing a shortage of 81 lakh units daily from the Central quota.

An official release here stated that though the Kota thermal plant units had started functioning early on Tuesday morning, the power production had not reached its full capacity. Besides, there was a shortfall of 24 lakh units following the closure of one component of the Dholpur plant and a deficit of 60 lakh units with the fifth unit of Suratgarh thermal power plant being shut after a technical snag.

The official release said the State was not getting 81 lakh units of electricity daily from the Central power stations. There was a shortfall of 52 lakh units from the Rawatbhata Atomic Power Plant, 5 lakh from Narora Atomic Power Plant, 8 lakh from Singrauli, 5 lakh from Dadri, 4 lakh from Oraiya and 7 lakh from Anta power station.

The release pointed out that the State had an additional availability of 8.60 crore units of electricity from its own power stations and other Central plants. This was likely to ensure power supply to agricultural and domestic consumers without any major interruption this month.

While the closed units of the Dholpur and Suratgarh power stations are expected to restart by Friday this week, the fourth unit of the Rana Pratap Sagar plant is not likely to start functioning again before the year-end. This unit was closed on November 7 after a major technical fault.