By Vishal Gulati, IANS,
Shimla : Hydroelectric power generation in Himachal Pradesh has dipped by 10 to 20 percent after several water channels froze at high altitudes, affecting electricity supply to northern states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
“Power generation this month has fallen from 24 million units per day to 22 million units,” V.K. Verma, deputy general manager at power generation company Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, told IANS.
“The discharge in the Satluj river in Kinnaur district where our 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Hydropower Project is located has reduced to 200 cumec due to the freezing of glaciers in the catchment of the Spiti river,” he said.
Around four days ago, the discharge in the river was 300 cumec, he added.
Cumec is cubic metre per second, a measure of the flow rate.
Similarly, various projects run by the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) on the Satluj, Chenab and Beas river basins are generating power below their capacity.
HPSEB chairman Ravinder Kumar Jain said power generation through the 126-MW Largi project in Mandi district and the 120-MW Bhava project in Kinnaur district, among others, had fallen – though marginally.
“This is an annual feature. At this time, early snowfall freezes the water channels. We are prepared to overcome the power shortage from other hydel units located in the lower and mid-hills,” he said.
Similarly, the 540-MW Chamera I and 300-MW Chamera II projects in Chamba district run by the National Hydroelectric Power Corp have been running below their generation capacity.
The power crisis in Punjab has deepened as Himachal Pradesh Tuesday stopped the daily supply of 100 MW to it from government-run units.
“Under a power-sharing pact, we were daily supplying 100 MW of power to Punjab. Now due to a fall in power generation in hydel units, we have stopped the supply to Punjab,” a senior HPSEB official admitted, requesting anonymity.
Now, Punjab is facing a power shortage of 36 million units per day.
Verma, however, said the early onset of winter would not hit the the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam’s annual generation target of 6,400 million units.
“We have already generated 4,500 million units in the first six months despite the project being closed for nine days due to a high silt level in June,” he said.
But a Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam official said generation has fallen.
“These days, the generation is just 22 million units per day against the normal generation capacity of 38 million units, which means the production has fallen by nearly 50 percent,” the official said.
This means power-buying states are getting less electricity than the allotted quota.
The maximum that Punjab gets daily from the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam is 114 MW, Haryana 64 MW, Chandigarh 8 MW, Himachal Pradesh 547 MW, New Delhi 142 MW, Jammu and Kashmir 105 MW, Rajasthan 112 MW, Uttar Pradesh 225 MW and Uttarakhand 38 MW.
If the total power generated goes down, supplies to these states too falls.