Haryana has decided to buy 300MW of hydro power from Arunachal Pradesh for the next nine months amid speculation that the deficit in supply may touch 3,000MW over the next few weeks.
Officials said the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) had given its approval for the purchase of power under a short-term agreement. Haryana has been grappling with power shortage for the past several months because of depleting coal stocks in the thermal plants and lack of supply from the private companies with which the government had an agreement.
It was in the middle of March that various cities in the state started facing outages. On April 29, the government announced a schedule of 6-8 hours of power cuts across the state. Gurugram heaved a sigh of relief in May, when the supply was increased, but other areas continued to sweat it out in the scorching summer.
This is not the first time that Haryana will buy power to manage the crisis. In April, HERC had given its approval to purchase 500MW for three years from two coal-based power plants — MB Power of Madhya Pradesh and RKM Powergen of Chennai. They will supply power between April and October, when the demand is high.
Officials agreed that the state was experiencing a “critical” power deficit this year. In April and May – when air conditioners operated relentlessly to tackle the punishing summer heat – the state faced a shortage of 2,570MW and 1,786MW of quantum energy, respectively. Officials fear that the crisis could mount to 3,000MW soon.
“Thermal plants across the country are grappling with a coal shortage, but the power demand is increasing too. We are facing difficulty in bridging the gap between demand and supply because of insufficient coal stocks at thermal plants. The power supply from long-term sources is gravely affected. The shortage could soon touch 3,000MW,” a power department official said.
After HERC’s approval, the Haryana Power Purchase Centre (HPPC) will buy 300MW from Kameng Hydro Power Station in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh through NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) at Rs 5.45/kWH. This will continue till March 2023. The Kameng power station is owned and operated by North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (NEEPCO).
