Power Availability Heatwave Transmission Fault Hit Up Rural Areas Affected By Loadshedding

Uttar Pradesh faced pressure on power availability amid surging electricity demand caused by intense heat after a transmission disturbance in the Singrauli region disrupted generation and affected the state’s share of supply last night.

According to a spokesperson for the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), two high-voltage transmission lines in the Singrauli region tripped on the evening of June 18 due to an earth fault. The disruption impacted all three units of NTPC’s Rihand thermal power station, affecting around 3,000 MW of generation, of which Uttar Pradesh’s allocated share was estimated at nearly 950 MW.

The situation was aggravated by outages and technical disruptions at multiple generating stations in the state.

Among Central sector and joint venture plants, Ghatampur Unit-2 (660 MW) and Khurja Unit-2 (660 MW) were affected. In the private sector, generation was impacted at Lalitpur Thermal Power Project Unit-3 (660 MW), Anpara-C Unit-1 (600 MW) and Rosa Unit-1 (300 MW) due to technical reasons.

UPPCL said state-owned generation units were also affected, including Obra-C Unit-2 and Harduaganj-D Unit-9, although both units have since been successfully restored and brought back into operation.

The corporation admitted the combined impact of these outages created challenges in meeting the sharply rising demand for electricity in the state.

UPPCL added that efforts were being made continuously to arrange additional power from available sources and maintain uninterrupted supply.

“Power supply arrangements were under constant monitoring and all necessary steps were being taken to ensure better electricity availability across the state,” the spokesman said.

A senior official said that the demand-supply gap to the tune of around 2,000 MW already exists in the state and power outages further created the crisis forcing the department to increase loadshedding in villages.

“We are managing the situation by resorting to rostering in villages only mostly in the late evening and till 1 am in the night,” the official said, adding “All efforts are being made to not only compensate villages with additional power in the daytime but also avoiding loadshedding beyond rural areas.”