Rajasthan is facing a sharp increase in the demand for power amid the scorching heat and the post pandemic rise in economic activities. The demand has increased by 31% to touch 13,700 MW this month, involving a daily consumption of 28 crore units.
To add to this, thermal power plants are not producing electricity to their full capacity.
Amid an acute shortage of coal for the thermal power units, the State is also not getting electricity from other sources such as the Energy Exchange even at high prices. Principal Energy Secretary Bhaskar A. Sawant said here on Monday power generation had been affected all over the country because of the coal crisis.
Mr. Sawant, who is also the chairperson of the public sector power distribution companies, said the discoms would shortly resort to load shedding in the villages and smaller towns to ensure uninterrupted power supply to essential services such as hospitals, oxygen centres, drinking water supply stations and military installations.
The load shedding will be carried out as per the roster in both rural and urban areas, except at the district and divisional headquarters. Mr. Sawant said that while essential services would be exempted from the power cut, load shedding would be withdrawn as soon as the situation normalised.
The thermal power stations, which have a capacity of 10,110 MW, are producing 6,600 MW of electricity every day. The power units will shortly get the coal under the bridge linkage following a recommendation by the Union Ministry of Power. The delay in Parsa coal block allocation in Chhattisgarh for the State has adversely affected the availability of coal in sufficient quantity for these plants.
