The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : 48-hour ‘power holiday’ for industries likely

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Saturday, Jul 19, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

48-hour ‘power holiday’ for industries likely

Swathi.V

Power cut to units to be extended to 6 hours

HYDERABAD: With the demand-supply gap widening, power authorities are considering the option of enhancing the existing 24-hour power holiday to 48 hours in a week for industries using 33 KV and 11 KV lines in and around the twin cities. Orders will also be issued for further curtailment in industrial demand by extending the four-hour power cut to six hours without dedicated feeders, officials from the central office of power distribution informed on Friday.

So far, a weekly power holiday was being enforced on the industries drawing from dedicated feeders while those using common feeders faced daily power cuts to the tune of four hours.

The fresh proposals came in the context of the precarious situation encountered on Thursday night due to grid frequency hitting sub-safety levels. The frequency should ideally be maintained around 50 hertz and should at any cost remain above 48.5 hertz for safety of the grid.

On Thursday night at about 11 p.m., the frequency wobbled around 48.3 hertz, forcing the authorities to shutdown power supply to many localities. “Demand on Thursday night exceeded 3,400 megawatts as against the load allocation of 2,600 mw for the CPDCL, resulting in overdraft to the extent of 800 mw. ,” said U. Vidyasagar, Divisional Engineer from Load Monitoring and Restriction Cell.

Utter darkness

The situation was brought under control by tripping 132 KV substations at places like s Bandlaguda, Medchal, Shamirpet, and Chandrayangutta. As a result, areas catered to by these substations were plunged into utter darkness for more than an hour. “The power was out for about 4-5 hours over the day. With the power going off at 11 p.m. and lack of response from the 24-hour helpline, we faced the worst” complained Chary, a retired professor at Kothapet.

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Andhra Pradesh