Jharkhand facing severe power shortage

Ranchi -- Jharkhand is facing a severe energy crunch, with the capital Ranchi suffering over five hours of power cuts daily - the demand for electricity is on the rise but production on the decline.

When Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in November 2000, then power minister Lalchand Mahto declared that the state had power surplus. Now, the gap between demand and supply has almost doubled. Electricity consumption of the state has gone up from 700 mw in 2000 to the current 1,100 MW.

The state produces 350-450 MW of power from its thermal power plants and depends on others to fill the shortfall.

The Patratu Thermal Power Plant has 10 units, which have the capacity to produce 850 MW, but it produces only 80-120 MW because six units have been closed permanently.

Another power plant, the Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd (TVNL), has the capacity to produce 440 MW but produces only 200 MW. The Sikidari power plant produces 120 MW.

Jharkhand purchases power from the state-run Damodar Valley Corp (DVC) and other public sector units like National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC).

"We purchase power at the rate of Rs.2.65 per unit from DVC and other PSUs and then supply it to domestic consumers for Rs.1.65 a unit," said a Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) official.

He added that over Rs.1 billion had been pumped in to revive the closed units of the Patratu plant and TVNL but this had not yielded results.

The Jharkhand government has set a target of electrifying all its 32,000 villages by 2012, for which it needs around 5,000 MW of power. Currently 12,000 villages have electricity.

The previous government had signed memorandums of understanding with the Tatas and the R.P Goenka group to set up major thermal power plants. But not even one of them has been set up so far due to alleged red tape.