Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Power consumption goes up

VIJAYAWADA: Electricity consumers' woes have not come to an end though summer has passed away.

People are finding it difficult to put up with stifling humidity. Frequent tripping and low voltage problems have only made matters worse — air-conditioners have been rendered useless, fans run slowly, and refrigerators fail to provide the cooling effect. Power consumption in the city has increased phenomenally during the last couple of days, surpassing the allotted quota. Sub-stations and transformers in the city are overloaded with the increase in power consumption, leading to frequent tripping of supply and voltage fluctuations. The situation gets worse during night as the use of air-conditioners and ceiling fans further increases the load.

People consumed 9.427 MU (million units) on Friday alone as against the allotted quota of 8.967 MU. And, the maximum demand (MD) touched 480.82 MW, which is equal to the allotted quota of 480.82 MW. In fact, the consumers have been using more than 9 MU a day since June 18, except on June 19 when it dropped to 8.883 MU. The consumption even touched 10.308 MU on June 4. The highest number of units consumed in a day was 10.770 MU during 2011-12, while it was 10.034 MU in 2010-11. And, the consumers are using 140 MW every day in the city.

SPDCL officials attribute the overloading problem to delay in the onset of southwest monsoon. The officials feel this is a short-term problem. The problem will ease with a shower or two. The load will automatically come down as the use of air-conditioners comes down, they say.

The problem is just not confined to a particular area in the city. The pressure on sub-stations is more in the areas such as Patamata. The power supply trips automatically if the consumption crosses the permitted limit of 700 amps. But in sum sub-stations, it is crossing 850 amps. Existing network cannot take the load even if the supply matches demand. The city requires more sub-stations and transformers to avoid this kind of problems, officials say.

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