Katihar protests: Lens on power transmission gaps in Bihar

Despite adequate availability of power to Bihar, the lack of quality power supply owing to transmission problems has led to simmering discontent and public protests, especially among farmers, the most recent being at Barsoi, subdivisional headquarters of Katihar district, where protests turned violent, claiming two lives, as police had to open fire at the protesters on July 26.

Regular low voltage at the Purnia grid of the Powergrid, a Central government PSU, which supplies power to the three feeders in Barsoi, along with 50% deficit rainfall in Bihar till July 27, have triggered a surge in demand for power, posing a challenge to the North Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd (NBPDCL) the discom supplying power to Katihar and 20 other districts of the state, said state power officials.

The state has been able to meet the bulk of its power demand largely through the NTPC, which supplies an average 6,000 MW to 6,500 MW, depending on Bihar’s requisition for power, against its average daily scheduled allocation of 6,891 MW, including 300 MW solar power.

Bihar attained its highest peak load demand of 7,841 MW against its average demand of 6,500 MW on July 25, as per government data. With a maximum power deficit of 7.25% from the NTPC during the last week, the state had to meet its demand by purchasing additional power from open market, say officials familiar with the matter.

In Barsoi, which consists of 30 panchayats, power supply was restricted throughout the month, though the duration of restriction was a little over 39 hours between July 1 and July 25, as per data sourced from the Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited (BSPHCL). The allocated load for Barsoi subdivision hovered between 20 MW and 30 MW against its maximum peak load demand of 47 MW on July 23, said BSPHCL officials.

Even when power was available, the supply was unstable because of the low voltage at the three 33kV feeders of Barsoi subdivision. While the Barsoi feeder received an average 31.52 kV, Sanhauli got 32.04 kV and Azamnagar 31.25 kV, BSPHCL data showed.

“The low voltage at the Purnia grid had a cascading effect on our feeders in Barsoi, as the voltage dropped further when power reached rural households and agricultural fields. The farmers were unable to operate pumps to irrigate their fields through tube-well,” said a field officer of the discom.

“We can neither irrigate our fields nor sleep well in the hot and humid summer conditions, due to poor availability of power,” said Shakir Alam, a local resident of Barsoi. “Power supply has been poor, with low voltage problem, for the last few weeks.”

“We don’t get adequate quality power. Our business and agriculture have been badly affected,” said Md Muzaffar Alam, a resident of Barsoi in Katihar. “Powermen take the alibi of doing maintenance work whenever we ask them about frequent power outages,” he said.

Aditya Prakash, managing director of the NBPDCL and the Bihar State Power Transmission Company Ltd., both subsidiaries of the BSPHCL, was not available for comment.

Sanjeev Hans, chairman and managing director (CMD) of BSPHCL, however, defended the power firm.

“We stepped up the voltage of our 50 MVA power transformer at the Barsoi grid sub-station twice over the last one month by changing its ‘tap’ (a device, which functions as a stabiliser to step up or step down transmission voltage) position from 6 to 11 and then to 13 The low voltage issue was resolved,” said Hans.

Two other reasons attributed to the drop in voltage at Barsoi was due to the 70-km long 132 kV transmission line between Purnia and Barsoi, and the lack of an alternate source of transmission line to the subdivisional headquarters, said a retired power engineer of the discom who did not wish to be named.

The BSPHCL chief, however, said he had already set in motion a plan to tackle the two issues mentioned above.

“Barsoi already has a grid sub-station but it’s loaded, as six power sub-stations get power from it. Two new sub-stations are also under construction there. So, we have proposed a new 132/33kV grid sub-station at Sanhauli, for equitable distribution of load to power sub-stations. This will also help check the drop in voltage because of the long transmission line from the grid in Purnia,” said Hans.

Erratic power supply and low voltage have been a perennial problem across Bihar, especially in rural areas.

“We have power supply for barely 12 hours a day. Even when power is available, voltage is too low to operate pumps for irrigating our fields. Alternate irrigation methods through diesel pump set is a costly proposition,” said Suresh Mishra, a local farmer of Dhanauti village in Bhojpur district.

“Rural areas get between 16 and 20 hours of power supply while urban areas get around 24 hours power supply, excluding breakdowns,” said Avinash Kumar, Bhojpur’s superintending engineer of the South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd.

Frequent load shedding is common in Kaimur and Rohtas districts.

Hans said many more 132/33 kV additional grid sub-stations have been proposed to reduce the length of transmission lines and improve power supply in rural areas.

Interestingly, a grid sub-station sanctioned at Korha in Katihar district was awaiting land since 2018.

“Bihar has strengthened its distribution network by putting up new distribution transformers and replacing old and worn out conductors through a slew of schemes. It now needs to improve its transmission system so that people get reliable and quality power supply,” said a former chairman of the erstwhile Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB), before it was unbundled into five companies in November 2012, with the avowed objective of rapid reforms in the energy sector.

(With inputs from Aditya Nath Jha in Purnia, Prashant Ranjan in Ara and Pasun K Mishra in Rohtas)