MP holds back returning power to states to meet local demand

After putting off the overhaul of two thermal power units to meet the local demand, power-starved Madhya Pradesh, on Friday backed out from the scheduled return of 470 megawatt (MW) of power to West Bengal and Haryana, to meet local demand, officials said.

Under a power banking agreement— a time bound exchange of power between the state-run power utilities having surplus power to share— Madhya Pradesh, was scheduled to return 350 MW to Haryana and another 120 MW to West Bengal between July and September 2014.

"Returning of shared power to Haryana and West Bengal has been discontinued to meet the power demand in the state," said KC Badkul, director (commercial) of Madhya Power Management Company.

"We had returned the shared power as per schedule till Friday, but poor rains and shortage of coals have hit both hydel and thermal power generation in the state."

During past two years, Madhya Pradesh had enough power to share under power banking due to good rainfall in 2013. The state had shared 1400 MW of power through power banking and even sold surplus power to other state, Badkul said.