Sudden spurt in power consumption with the onset of summer and tripping of three power plants of the state led to power crisis in several parts of state including Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Lohardaga, Gumla, Simdega, Khunti, Garhwa, Palamau and Santhal Pargana since Saturday.

Worst hit areas remained Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Palamau, Garhwa and Santhal Pargana etc The gravity of power crisis can be assumed the fact more than 10 to 12 hours of load shedding is being carried out of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) giving sleepless nights to common residents in these districts.

Notably, one unit of Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Limited tripped on Friday night causing a short supply of 150 megawatt of power. The tripping of one unit of thermal power plant of Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Limited (APNRL) in Saraikela and one unit of Inland Power Ltd at Gola further complicated the problem leading to around 150 megawatt of more short supply.

The peak hour requirement of different districts of Jharkhand except those under the command of DVC is around 1600 megawatt but only 1250 megawatt supply was made yesterday.

In Dhanbad however the power crisis has also been caused due to sudden spurt of power consumption from 220 megawatt of normal days to 300 megawatt due to the advent of summer. Expressing disgust over the situation, Rajesh Gupta, Patron of Federation of Dhanbad Zila Chamber of Commerce and Industry said “the situation is extremely pathetic in Dhanbad and industry and trade is likely to be worst hit due to power crisis during summer.”

“Lack of required infrastructure before JBVNL including sufficient number of power station and power generation facility is mainly responsible for the crisis as even as power consumption increases during summer JBVNL could not draw extra power from NTPC due to lack of substations” said Gupta and added that at a time when the inflation is increasing day by day the increased cost of generator operation would further affect the business.

Echoing sentiments, Alok Mallik, President of Santhal Pargana Chamber of Commerce and Industry said, “Load shedding of two hours was being carried out for two hours after one hour of power supply since the last two three days but the situation improved since yesterday but one hour of load shedding after every one hour of supply is still being carried out."

“Until and unless the state government initiates concrete measures to increase the power production the situation is likely to continue and would like to point out that the proposed Ultra Mega Power Project of Deoghar of around 4000 megawatt is still to take off due to land issue” further said Mallik.

Pratosh Kumar, General Manager of Jamshedpur Unit of JBVNL said “the tripping of power plants of TNVNL, Adhunik etc led to power crisis but the situation later improved”