Andhra faces severe power crunch

Andhra Pradesh is reeling under a severe power crisis,with generation at several power stations badly hit due to the recent floods and poor maintenance.

Andhra Pradesh is reeling under a severe power crisis,with generation at several power stations badly hit due to the recent floods and poor maintenance. This has led to four to nine hours of power cuts in rural areas and at least one-hour power cuts in cities like Hyderabad,besides unscheduled outages. Even the nine-hour free power supply to the farm sector has become erratic due to the shortage.

Director of Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradeshs APTRANSCO Grid Operations,Shrirama Rao said,there is a shortfall of 1,500 MW and it is not due to increased demand but due to lower power generation in the state. While demand is for 230 million units per day and increasing daily,there is a supply of around 218 million units.

Officials said at least 12 state power generation stations,mostly hydel,are operating below capacity. They include the two big power generation stations Srisailam right bank unit and Dr Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station NTRTPS at Ibrahimpatnam.

Chief Minister K Rosaiah has written to the Centre,requesting to allocate more power from the central grid. Rosaiah,who holds the Energy portfolio,is learnt to have sought 500 MW from the central grid till January. This is above the 100 MW already allocated from the central power generation units.

APTRANSCO officials said the state is facing the crisis because the 770 MW Srisailam right bank canal unit is out of operation due to flooding in October. It may take at least another three to four months to bring it back into operation. The 150 MW left bank canal unit is also shut due to exit gates problem from October 3.

At the NTRTPS,besides routine maintenance problems,a blast in unit 7 on October 26 has hit it badly leading to a loss of 500 MW of power. Under utilization of the 150 MW unit 4 due to regular repairs has resulted in production of 80 million units MUs only while the other five units are producing over 140 MUs.

Besides,hydel power stations at the Nagarjuna project also had to be closed for repairs after the floods.

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The crisis will only worsen as the Rabi season starts,as the farm sector will have to be provided uninterrupted power supply.