With the winter chill pushing up the usage of heating gadgets, HP State Electricity Board Limited is now imposing power cuts to deal with excess power load on the feeder here.
Official sources said the power usage had registered a rise owing to the declining temperature and as against the usual demand of 22 Mega Volt Ampere (MVA), an added demand of 4 MVA was being witnessed in Solan.
Since the existing feeder at Kather was unable to withstand the excessive load, officials had worked out a schedule to impose power cuts in parts of Solan and its surrounding areas.
While the officials claimed that there was no power shortage, it was lack of infrastructure that was affecting the power distribution. Since timely augmentation of power vis-a-vis the increasing power load had not been undertaken, the existing feeder was overloaded.
As per the norms, all commercial ventures need to install their own transformers but there was adherence to the norm. With scores of palatial commercial complexes, housing projects and as many as five private universities, besides various private educational institutes having sprung up in the periphery of Solan in the last few years, the demand of power had gone up immensely. According to an estimate, about 600 to 700 KVA load was consumed by these commercial ventures.
Since such private projects often avail the load in a piecemeal manner they conveniently bypass the norms, thus overloading the main feeder.
This mismatch between the demand and supply has put the common man under hardships and, besides power cuts, the problem of low voltage was also been witnessed in Solan, Dharampur, Dagshai, Kasauli, Kandaghat and Subathu.
Superintending Engineer, HPSEBL, Anup Dhiman, when quizzed said power augmentation was underway and a 7 MVA new sub-station was coming up at Oachghat.
He said the power availability certificates were issued on the basis of the available power to all commercial ventures and they were directed to abide by the stipulated norms while availing it.
Officials said the work to enhance the capacity of the Kather-based sub-station by 10 MVA was also underway and it would be accomplished by the next year which would considerably help to improve the power scenario.
