GUNTUR: The failure of rain in the first two months of the monsoon has pushed up the demand for power in the Guntur circle of the Southern Power Distribution Company Limited of Andhra Pradesh to more than 6 million units per day, up by 1 million units.

The allocated quota for the Guntur circle is 5.1 million units per day, but for the past fortnight the circle has been drawing around 6 million units to meet the continuous three-phase power supply demand for a minimum of seven hours. "We have been meeting this agriculture demand without fail," said SPDCL Superintending Engineer V. Rajasekhar.

Hydroelectric power

The company was able to meet the demand for power due to the generation of hydroelectric power at Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar following heavy inflows into river Krishna from Maharashtra and Karnataka, he observed. The failure of rain even in July has suddenly increased the demand for power, though water was available in some irrigated lands through canals.

The load distribution centre was continuously monitoring the demand of all the four distribution companies and SPDCL had a need of 1,200 MW. The demand from the high tension power consumers had also gone up considerably with the tariff coming down slightly.

The 33 kv tariff came down from Rs.3.40 per unit to Rs.3.10 and 11 KV from Rs.3.60 to Rs.3.30 and the 130 kv customers are charged at Rs.2.80 against the earlier Rs.3.10 per unit.

New record

In Guntur circle, Andhra Cements has begun production and some new spinning mills have come up pushing the HT power demand from Rs.17 crores in January to Rs.22.25 crores in July, which is a new record for the circle. The total revenue demand was Rs 51.28 crores till Sunday with the agriculture and industrial demand going up.

The transmission and distribution losses had come down to 19 per cent in six circles of SPDCL against the State average of 22 per cent. The company proposes to set up additional sub-stations in the district to further lower the T&D losses.

One 132 kv sub-station each would soon be grounded at Nallapadu and Karempudi, while tenders had been finalized for a 22 kv unit at Narsaraopet, which would improve quality of power and eliminate low-voltage problems in majority of the areas, Mr. Rajasekhar said.

By March 2007, another 31 sub-stations of 33/11 kv capacity would be commissioned all over the district and the Rural Electrification Corporation was likely to give permission for another two sub-stations at Rentachintala (220 kv) and Marripalem near Chilakaluripet (130 kv).

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