Title - Power supply back to normal in Jharkhand

RANCHI: Power supply in the state capital and other districts was restored by Wednesday morning, a day after a complete blackout engulfed Jharkhand for more than four hours following collapse of the central and eastern power grids on Tuesday. Though power was restored in the capital by 4pm on Tuesday, several other parts of the state continued to be in the dark. The state on Wednesday received full power supply both from the central sector and its domestic units. The state had 720MW in its pool, of which 420MW was obtained from the central sector.

While industries and collieries gradually limped back to normal production, no abnormal delays in train schedules were reported by the railways though about 30 trains were delayed on Tuesday. Officials of the Ranchi Railway Division said that since power supply from the eastern grid has resumed, trains running in this part of the South Eastern Railway had were running on time.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand State Electricity Board used Tuesday's crisis as an opportunity to light up some of its local units. JSEB chairman S N Verma, who is also the chairman of eastern regional power committee, negotiated a deal with a Bhutan-based power and obtained 50MW electricity. This was used not only to support emergency services, but to electrify one of the units of Patratu Thermal Power station (PTPS) and keep one unit of the Tenughat Vidyut Nigam limited (TVNL) operational. An additional 25MW of power was also sought from Power Grid Corporation of India limited (PGCIL) to maintain supply in the capital and Jamshedupur.

P K Srivastava, director of public relation at JSEB, said that two units of PTPS were generating 90MW whereas one unit of the TVNL was contributing 210MW, taking the domestic production to 300MW. "We expect one more unit of the PTPS to be lit up soon to further augment the domestic production," he said. When asked if Jharkhand is among the states drawing excess power from the central sector than allocated, Srivastava said that the state in fact is getting around 420MW as against an allotment of 550MW. Around 70MW shortfall was attributed to Damodar Valley Corporation, which was completely shut down on Tuesday due to the eastern grid trip.

DVC resumed power production late on Tuesday but was unable to provide sufficient electricity to Jharkhand as per the agreement. Jharkhand seeks 365MW of power from DVC at 32 points of its command area and as per provisions of new agreement it takes total 700MWs for its domestic requirements.