JOIN USManesar industrialists plan to set up own power plant
Exasperated by futile rounds to government offices seeking regular power supply, industrialists of Manesar have decided set up a 50 MW power plant to reduce dependency on DHBVN, a government-owned electricity distribution company.
The decision was taken at the annual general meeting of the Manesar Industries Welfare Association (MIWA) on Wednesday, attended by 150 of the 225 members.
The project is presently in the planning stage. “We get power supply for only eight hours a day and on some days, it’s even worse. Why should we pay such high tariffs,” said Sameer Lamba, director of Growth Engine Private Limited, an aluminium casting company based in Manesar.
HSIIDC charges Rs 120 per KW from each industrialist and Lamba, whose unit draws 250 KW, pays Rs 30,000 per month for power.
Most industrialists in Manesar, who are dependent on gensets, shell out Rs 13 to 15 for one unit of electricity.
Ameena Sherwani, another industrialist, told Deccan Herald that they mulled over the plan of setting up their own captive power plant following the recent grid collapse that forced the industries to go without power for 72 hours.
Intermittent supply
“Even when the problem was sorted we were getting just two to three hours of intermittent supply of power in the entire day. Five days after that, on August 5, we went to meet the state Power Minister Captain Ajay Yadav who solved our problem, but only for the time being. Now we get 10 hours of power supply every day. But I doubt if this would be sustainable. We want a long-term solution of setting up our own plant,” said Sherwani.
With their own plant, industrialists expect to meet the demand for power easily and are hopeful of making some money by selling the surplus power.
A senior officer in the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam confirmed the news. “Yes, we got to know about it but we are trying to convince them not to abandon discom completely as we will shortly meet their demand. One unit of Khedar power plant in Hissar is currently non-functional. Once it starts functioning, the problem of power shortage will be solved,” said the officer on condition of anonymity.