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Bhubaneswar, May 23: The people of the state have been reeling under the frequent disruptions in power supply and low voltage but the state government has claimed that power cuts are not being imposed in the state.
“There is no power cut in any part of the state. It is just power tripping. As the demand has increased because of the intense heatwave conditions, the transformers are unable to bear the load. This causes power tripping,” energy minister Pranab Prakash Das said here Saturday.
As the mercury has been rising this week, power requirement has risen to 4000 MW, which is the requirement of mid-June. However, the government was able to avoid a power crisis as it was prepared to tackle such a situation, he said.
“With the Met department forecasting that the heatwave will prevail for another week, we have also raised the auto-cut level of transformers from 70 per cent of total capacity to 80 per cent,” the minister informed.
There are problems of disruption in the supply of power to Khandagiri and Chandaka areas of Bhubaneswar but this would be sorted out in the next three days, Das said.
The minister has directed all power distribution companies to ensure uninterrupted power supply to all district hospitals and other government-run medical institutions.
The opposition Congress slammed the state government for making such announcements. “The statement of the energy minister is far from the reality. I think the minister and the state government do not know the ground reality. The undeclared power cuts affect people not only in the capital city, but also across the state,” said Congress legislator Prakash Behera.