Power crisis in Madhya Pradesh during irrigation and festival season

Madhya Pradesh is witnessing a power crisis in the irrigation and festive season. Due to the coal crisis across the country, 500 MW thermal power units closed on 21 October at Sanjay Gandhi Thermal Power Station.

The thermal power units owned by the MP government are performing at half of their capacity. Hydel stations are also not operating at their full capacity. The nation's power share is unexpectedly low due to the coal crisis.

According to the government's estimate, the peak demand in irrigation started on 15 October and is expected to cross 17,000 MW. It is based on the highest peak in demand of about 15,500 MW in October last year.

Currently, the MP government is managing nearly 9,000 MW. The closed power unit produced two crore units or 5% of the average requirement, but it is unlikely in the peak season.

According to a retired chief engineer of PM Genco, Rajendra Agarwal, the MP system has 5,400 MW thermal capacity, 2,400 MW hydel capacity, 2,400 MW wind power capacity, 1,600 MW solar power and 380 MW private capacity from a total of 12,000 MW. It also has a 5,400 MW capacity from the central sector, including the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) thermal plants, National Productivity Council (NPC) nuclear plants and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) hydel plants, along with 3,000 MW Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).

The state has an 826 MW share in the Sardar Sarovar project. The total installed capacity in MP is 21,000 MW. For additional capacity, there is power banking of about 2,000 MW with other states.

From the total 12,000 MW, only half of it can be procured and currently, only 3,500 MW is being procured. If 4,000 MW is to be procured, Independent Power Producers (IPPs) produce 2,500 MW, 1,000 MW could be obtained from power banking, and 13,500 MW can be procured.

If the peak demand crosses 13,500 MW, power should be brought in through bilateral arrangements, or else the state could witness load-shedding or power cuts.

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