Himachal Pradesh to feed power to Punjab from June 11

By IANS,

Shimla : Himachal Pradesh, which has begun selling hydropower to energy-deficient Haryana and Delhi, will begin supplying electricity to neighbouring Punjab next week.


Support TwoCircles

“We (the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board) will start feeding two million units daily to Punjab from June 1,” board’s director of generation Sunil Grover told IANS.

“Delhi has been getting 1.5 million units daily since May 1, and we started supplying one million units to Haryana from June 1,” Grover said.

The hydroelectric power in the hill state increases in summer as glaciers and lakes that had frozen in the winter months start thawing.

Grover said the 20 run-of-river projects operated by the board currently generate 7.6 million units daily.

The board supplies power to Punjab, Haryana and Delhi on a “banking” arrangement under which it receives electricity from these states during winter when its generation dips by 75 to 80 percent, and returns the power in summer when its own generation peaks.

Apart from the board-owned plants, Himachal has 13 major hydropower projects run either by the central government, private players or are joint ventures, all operating at full capacity currently.

V.K. Verma, deputy general manager of the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam that owns the Nathpa-Jhakri project, said generation at his plant has increased to 36 million units per day, and attributed it to the increased flow in the Satluj river, on which the project is located.

Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh buy power from the 1,500-MW Nathpa-Jhakri project.

Himachal Pradesh’s hydropower potential is 20,416 MW – about 25 percent of India’s total potential – out of which only 6,419 MW is being harnessed. Of this, 1,738 MW is generated by 15 projects run by the private sector.

SUPPORT TWOCIRCLES HELP SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND NON-PROFIT MEDIA. DONATE HERE