After demand spike, government scrambles to ensure uninterrupted power supply
Times of India | 30 April 2024
KOLKATA: Irked by power cuts across the city amidst an unprecedented heatwave, and wary of its impact on the electorate during the ongoing elections, power minister Arup Biswas convened an emergency meeting with high-level officials of both private utility CESC and state utility WBSEDCL and told them they need to ensure uninterrupted power supply.
Though both CESC and WBSEDCL met last week's all-time high power demand of 12,663 MW, over 850 MW more than the previous high recorded last June, there have been outages in Tollygunge, Jadavpur, Baghajatin, Beliaghata, Taltala and Dum Dum in the CESC area and in Salt Lake and New Town where WBSEDCL supplies power.
Incidences of power cuts and voltage fluctuations have led to murmurs about the vulnerable situation in summer that has left power department officials uneasy.
On Monday, Biswas told the top officials of the two power companies to focus on ensuring continuous supply during the severe heatwave, the worst in decades. "The public should not suffer due to power outages, especially during this extreme heatwave. Do whatever is required to ensure supply," Biswas said.
The minister asked CESC to rush mobile generators to areas that report power cuts due to technical issues and ensure that supply is restored at the earliest while the fault is being repaired. CESC has 100 generators at its disposal and has been using them to address supply issues in localities when cable faults develop. WBSEDCL has similarly been ordered to utilize the 450 generators across the state to prevent power disruption.
The two utilities were also asked to deploy more manpower and mobile repair vans to repair snags.
Officials said there was enough power in the grid to meet the demand but admitted to infrastructure inadequacies to tackle overload. Sources said the minister had asked CESC to take immediate steps to beef up transformer capacity wherever required to ensure they don't trip when demand rises.
WBSEDCL has also chalked out an action plan to augment infrastructure. But it is unlikely to happen this summer as work will be taken up only after the elections and could take two months to complete thereafter.
With two more summer months - May and June - to go before monsoon offers respite, power department officials are worried about whether the already-stretched system will be able to withstand a further demand surge in June when high humidity combines with high temperature to make conditions worse.