FOR THOSE in Haryana who thought the power situation could not get worse, here's more news. It just did.
Anticipating a shortfall of between 35 and 100 lakh units per day in the next few months, Haryana's power utilities have begun imposing power cuts of up to three hours in most urban areas of the state. "These could go up to 6-8 hours in urban areas during peak summer months when the demand for power from the agriculture sector picks up for sowing of paddy," officials told Hindustan Times.
In the villages too, the scheduled power supply has been limited to roughly 13 hours, including five hours of three-phase supply, every day These are still early days, however. Rural areas may have to go without power for even longer hours between June and August when the gap between power demand and availability increases.
The state's power requirement has been projected at 766 lakh units against availability of roughly 730 lakh units next month. In the months of June and July, the demand has been projected at 877 lakh units and 902 lakh units against availability of roughly 822 lakh units and 826 lakh units respectively In August, the requirement is expected to shoot up to 930 lakh units whereas only 821 lakh units of eletricity are likely to be available, according to projections.
Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Power, Ashok Lavasa said that though 10 per cent more power would be supplied between April and August 2007 as compared to the corresponding period last year, the demand had shot up by about eight per cent in most parts of the state. In Gurgaon and Faridabad districts howevel: the demand is up by more than 12 per cent. "Arrangements are being made for short-term power to meet the rising demand. We had also banked power with Maharastra, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka when the power demand in our state was low. They will give it back to us," he said.
Besides, the state is expected to overdraw roughly 20 lakh units from the grid, depending on the grid frequency
No respite for Palam Vihar
A Week after electricity supply became nearly normal, Palam Vihar is experiencing long hours of power cuts again. What has added to the woes of residents is the non-cooperative behaviour of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam officials. Residents allege they rarely attend telephone complaints.
According to residents, the power supply situation had improved a little in Palam Vihar and other colonies after the media started highlighting the problem.
"Power cuts reduced dramatically after the HT launched a prominent campaign reporting the power failure in this area," said Sunil Yaday, the general secretary of Palam Vihar Resi- dents' Association.
