DEHRADUN: With summer almost here and temperatures soaring, the gap in demand and supply of electricity has increased in Uttarakhand. At present, against the demand of 40 million units per day of electricity, supply is 31 million units per day.
The gap is being managed by power cuts ranging from one hour to six hours in small centers of the hill state.
Officials from the power corporation said that the rates of electricity per unit have also registered an increase up to Rs 20 per unit due to high demands.
Anil Kumar, managing director of Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited said, "The demand has skyrocketed during the last 5 days. We are trying our best to keep the supply on."
The corporation is buying 9 million units of power per day spending Rs 15 Crore to meet the demand in the hill state.
Officials added that due to the rise in coal and gas prices rates of electricity per unit have also gone up from Rs 10-12 to Rs 20 per unit.
Such spike in demand of power supply used to be felt in the month of April but this year due to soaring temperatures the situation is experienced early, officials said.
Rising temperatures in the hill of Uttarakhand are impacting glaciers causing those melt and forming of pro-glacial lakes in basins of these glaciers, a report by the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board in the year 2020.
According to the report, before 1985 there were no significant changes in temperature of Uttarakhand hills and between the duration of 1970-90, it actually dipped.
After 1990, temperatures have been rising. Interestingly, hills have registered more rise in temperatures than plains.
Pithoragarh district registered the highest spike (0.58°C), followed by Chamoli (0.54°C), Rudraprayag (0.53°C), Bageshwar (0.52°C) and Uttarkashi (0.51°C), Champawat (0.49°C), Almora (0.46°C), Nainital (0.44°C), Tehri (0.43°C) and Pauri (0.41°C) which are all hill districts. The plains district of Haridwar saw an increase of 0.34°C, the lowest, followed by Dehradun (0.37°C) and Udham Singh Nagar (0.42°C).
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in the year 2019, the average global surface temperature was up by 0.98°C since the year 1880.