Reeling under an acute power crisis, the Rajasthan government has announced scheduled power cuts each day across the state as there has been a wide gap between power demand and supply. Bhaskar A. Sawant, the state's Chief Secretary (Energy) and Chairman of the Rajasthan Urja Vikas Nigam Limited, said that power demand jumped by 31 per cent in April against the corresponding period last year. While the power production has decreased, the demand has increased by 6.69 crore units. "In Rajasthan, the demand last year was 21.31 crore units each day which crossed the figure of 28 crore unit in this month of April," Sawant said.
"While the total demand was 11,570 MW in April, it has increased to 13,700 MW in this year's April." The demand has triggered in the wake of a severe heatwave being reported in different parts of the country, as well as in the momentum being gathered in economic activities after the third Covid wave, Sawant noted. An official order issued by Sawant said that a one-hour power cut has been announced at the divisional headquarters while district headquarters will witness a two-hour outage. In Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ajmer, the outages will last from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m, in Kota, Bharatpur, Bikaner and Udaipur, the power cuts are scheduled from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.. Meanwhile, a three-hour power cut in municipal areas and towns will be from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., and in rural areas, the deduction will continue as per the local schedule