The Hindu : Power cut imposed on rural areas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Power cut imposed on rural areas

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, FEB. 28. Faced with a shortage caused by a sudden hike in demand, the AP Transco has imposed power cut up to four hours, covering the rural areas in the State.

For the time being, cities/towns and industries are exempted from the cut. The scarcity was officially put at 5 million units for Saturday, with the demand reaching a staggering 150 mu against a total availability of 145 mu out of all sources.

The situation is likely to be serious on Sunday when the shortage is expected to go up further by more than 10 mu, taking the total demand-supply gap beyond 15 mu. As a result of this, a few cities/towns will come under the cut and the duration for rural areas will increase.

The problem cropped up suddenly due to a steep increase in demand both in agriculture and domestic sectors following the dry spell and hike in day temperatures.

Farmers resorted to panic reaction of running of the pump sets beyond the stipulated hours for saving the rabi crops with the season coming to a close and with the water-table falling at some places, a senior grid official told The Hindu.

The situation may get aggravated on Sunday because the 500-KV Talcher-Kolar transmission lines are being taken out of service by Powergrid for the day for maintenance works.

The southern states will lose 1,500 MW which is being routed through this line from Talcher thermal complex as their share. With Andhra Pradesh share out of this being 500 MW, the State will lose that much for the day amounting to more than 10 mu.

The official said, the system was further crippled due to nil generation at Srisialam and meagre output at Nagarjunasagar.

The Transco Commercial Director, P. M. K. Gandhi, briefed the Chief Secretary, Mohan Kanda, on the predicament, at a video-conference at the Secretariat in the evening.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh