Bhubaneswar: Odisha has been encountering frequent disruptions in electricity supply for long hours amid sweltering heat despite the state government’s announcement that there will be no power cut during summer.
Before heat conditions gripped the state, Energy Minister Pratap Keshari Deb had assured the people that there will be no power cuts during summer months. However, there have been complaints from many areas about frequent power outage.
Giving a clarification on the issue, the Energy Minister denied that there was any power cut in the state. However, Deb admitted that disruptions in electricity supply have been taking place in several areas because of power trip.
Admitting that power supply gets disrupted at some places for 2-4 hours due to technical glitches, the Minister said electricity supply gets snapped because of weak infrastructure and overload. Sometimes, it is due to nor’wester, overloading and burning of transformers, he said, adding that it is not power cut.
Asserting that there is no shortage of electricity in the state supply, the Minister said disruptions in supply are not caused by power shortage. In many places, overload leads to power trip as supply gets snapped due to overloading on transformers following excess demand during peak hours, he said.
“Why should there be power cuts when the state has surplus power? Immediate steps are taken to address issues relating to disruption in power supply caused by overload,” Deb said.
It may be noted here that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reviewed the performance of the Energy department on Wednesday. With the present generation of 8,065 MW, Odisha is in a position to meet the average peak hour power demand of around 5,400 MW, the Minister said.
He said the Union Government has also appreciated the state for the increase in average duration of power supply in rural areas which is better than the national average.
The aggregate transmission and commercial (ATC) loss had been brought down from 30.57% in 2018-19 to 18.12% in 2022-23. Besides, 4.11 new connections were provided and 5,100 consumer grievances were redressed online through the Mo Bidyut programme, the Minister said.
