Bihar

• 22 Nov 2023

Farakka-Kahalgaon will illuminate Bihar, 159 MW Electricity will be Available from Three Surrendered Units

Why In News?

On November 21, 2023, Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC) gave permission to purchase power while giving its decision on the petition filed by power companies regarding 24-hour power supply of 159 MW from the generation units of Farakka and Kahalgaon.

Key Points:

• On the orders of the Eastern Region Power Committee of the Ministry of Energy, Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC) has approved the purchase of power companies. This electricity will be available at a rate already approved by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).
• The bench of Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission, Member (Technical) Arun Sinha and Member (Law) PS Yadav, while giving its decision on the petition of the power companies related to it, said that the petitioners have to get 107.751 MW more from the Stage-One and Stage-Two units of Farakka. 51.520 MW will be made available 24 hours from NTPC's Kahalgaon unit. Just a month ago, the power company had surrendered about 850 MW of power from two units of Farakka and one unit of Kahalgaon.
• The organization that controls the electricity supply to the eastern states of the country has again made available to Bihar 159 MW of surrendered electricity which was not allocated to any other state. For this, an agreement has been signed between NTPC and Bihar Government in which the surrendered unallocated power has to be used only by the concerned state.
• In the petition, the power companies said that the two units of 110-110 MW built in Barauni Stage One are supplying only 5 percent of the contracted quantity for the last 14 months. There is no possibility of improvement in this situation in future due to which there is a shortage of about 200 MW of electricity throughout the year on 'Round the Clock' basis.
• Power companies said that getting permission to purchase 159 MW power will help in reducing the shortfall of about 200 MW from Barauni Thermal Power Station.