Power deficit in state increases

Hyderabad: Despite claims of being able to meet the power demand during the ensuing summer season due to good hydel flow this year, the state is already experiencing a power deficit in the thick of the winter. While the deficit was 4.5 million units on Thursday, it was expected to mount to 10 mu on Friday and more in the next week.

In fact, one of the main reasons for a widening power deficit, as per insiders, is the overusage of hydel generation in the last two to three months, despite warnings.

Unscheduled cuts are being imposed in districts and rural areas and cuts are not far away from the twin cities too. There is no power supply from any of the private power players currently as per data given by the Southern Load Dispatch centre, though no reason was given for the same. Officials say that the consumption has increased by 11 per cent since last year.

“We have lost power generation from Srisailam Left Bank and Right Bank as these were overused earlier. With the Rabi season coming up and temperatures seeing a slight upturn, the power demand in the state is slowly increasing. In fact the demand is seeing a huge increase each year and this year it’s already 11 per cent higher. While the demand is currently 255 mu per day in the state, there is a dip in hydel production from two weeks back. Thermal production is being stepped up but the deficit is still on the rise and is going to increase further,” said an APTransco official.

Power generation at the Srisailam Left Bank has come to a halt while the Right Bank and Left Bank Pump house are nearing complete shutdown as well.

While the 63 mw Rama-gundam unit is under outage due to technical reasons, unit 6 of Vijayawada Thermal Power Station and Unit 4 of Rayalaseema Thermal Power Station are under annual overhaul.