In an internal review meeting, which was convened to take stock of the power position in the State during ensuing winter season, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal claimed that the State Government had made adequate arrangements to meet the additional demand of power during winter months to supply consumer uninterrupted power without any power cuts.
Chief Minister said that the State usually faces power deficit during winter months when water level in the river recedes drastically resulting into reduced power generation by all the hydro power projects all over the State. He said that during summer months when the rivers overflow due to snow melting on higher reaches and rains etc. and power requirement also reduces to minimum while the other states face power shortage as demand for the same increases substantially. He said that the State was expecting good rain and snow fall during ensuring winter season which would ensure more surplus power during summer months. He said that the State Government had made arrangements with the neighboring states of supplying them power during Summer and take back equal amount of the same during Winter months when domestic demand increases due to heating and other power consuming requirements of the people. He said that the State Government through HP State Electricity Board Limited had supplied 244 Million Units (MUs) of power to Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh during the summer months of April to October, 2012 and the same was being transmitted back to Himachal Pradesh by respective States to meet the increased demand during the months from November, 2012 to March, 2013.
Prof. Dhumal said that HPSEBL had been authorized to tie up with the neighbouring States of Puinjab, Haryana and Delhi for procurement of 455MUs of power under forward banking arrangement with a view to ensure surplus power during winter months and in anticipation of increasing demand. He said that although the State had sufficient power to meet its domestic demand but as a precautionary arrangement additional power supply was also being ensured so that there were no power cuts and demand based supply of the same was ensured for domestic and commercial activities. He said that presently the State had power availability of 252 Lakh Units as against the demand of 242 Lakh Units. He said that there was still 10 Lakh Units as surplus power available for distribution which was sufficient to meet the anticipated demand in the state during coming months.
Chief Minister said that besides the self generation by HPSEBL projects, the State was also getting power from IPP owned small hydro power projects, central sector/bilateral share, free power from various projects and banking receipt from the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. He requested the IPPs to generate maximum power from the water available during winter months so that surplus power was available to the people. He also directed HPSEBL authorities to maintain best of the transmission and distribution system by plugging the transmission losses and repairing damaged lines during winter months so that people in rural areas were supplied uninterrupted power. He assured the people of the State that all out efforts would be made to ensure them regular power supply to meet their winter requirements. Senior officers of respective departments attended the meeting.
