Assam: Power consumers bearing the brunt of frequent load-shedding

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Of late, frequent load shedding has affected power consumers in general and industries in particular in the state. And when asked about the current erratic power supply scenario in the state, APDCL (Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd.) blames it on the scarcity of power in the open market.

Sources in the APDCL say that the production of power has fallen drastically in the past few days in the country. All power distribution companies in the country procure power from the open market through the power trading platform, Indian Energy Exchange Ltd. (IEX). And the market gets the power from different power producers. According to APDCL, the IEX runs short of power these days, and as such, it cannot get the required quantity of power to meet the state’s power demand. And that leads to frequent load shedding in the state, which will continue for a few more days, the sources said. Sources in the APDCL said that they had to procure power at a higher cost to supply it to consumers at lower rates. The maximum gross power demand in the state is 2,260 MW, but APDCL could meet the maximum demand of 1900 MW.

APGCL (Assam Power Generation Corporation Ltd.), on the other hand, produces around 300 MW of power compared to its capacity of 420 MW from four different power plants.

Meanwhile, the All Assam Electricity Consumers’ Association’s convener, Ajoy Acharjee, said, “The APDCL is providing us misleading information about the fall in power production in the country. We have information that the State Government asked its power plants to lower production these days. If other states of the country can procure power according to their demands, why cannot APDCL? No government in the state has ever laid stress on improving the power production of the state’s own power plants. The APDCL, which can spend crores of rupees on the installation of smart meters, cannot procure the required power at higher rates from the market. The demand for power in the state is 2,500 MW, and APGCL can produce only 200–250 MW. In fact, the government has been hatching a conspiracy to hand over the power plants of the state to private companies.”

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