Electricity Crisis: Power cuts paralyse Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

Hyderabad: Long official power cuts coupled with unofficial load-shedding has crippled normal life and plunged the industry sector into losses of hundreds of crores of rupees in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Rough estimations by industrialists associated with Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) put the daily industrial loss due to power holiday and unofficial power cuts to over Rs 150 crore per day in both the states put together. However, over 70 per cent of these losses are in Telangana.

The situation is so bad that even Greater Hyderabad is reeling under more than six hours of power cuts, sometimes extending to 10 hours in some of the colonies, thanks to the combination of official and unofficial load-shedding.

The situation is equally bad in other cities and towns like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Guntur, Ranga Reddy, Medak, Nalgonda, Khammam, Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar, Medak, Kurnool and Anantapur.

While four to six-hour hour official power cuts are being imposed in district headquarters, it is up to eight hours in mandal headquarters and between 10 and 12 hours in villages. Patients, particularly diabetics are affected, as their medicines like insulin have to be stored in refrigerators. With power outages occurring almost throughout the day, storage of insulin has emerged as a big challenge.

“After day-long fasting, the first thing we like to do is drink cool water from the refrigerator after breaking our fast with dates. But due to power cuts, we cannot depend on the refrigerators,” said Mr Parvez Sharief of Toli Chowki.

Doctors say that their medical equipment readings are also getting affected due to power fluctuations.

Osmania General Hospital Radiologist Dr Suman Chandra said, “Due to the constant power fluctuations, we can’t properly scan patients. The work has to be stopped as the machine does not work on low voltage or less power.” Most of the vital establishments do not have power back up for eight hours.

Residents complain that three-phase supply is not being restored even after scheduled power cuts. Schools do not have generators with teachers and students sweating it out in the classrooms.
Traders and owners of commercial establishments meanwhile say they cannot run their generators the entire day. “The officials should stick to the power cut timings,” said a trader.

Transco and power distribution company officials attributed the cuts to the gap between demand and supply. Also, power consumption has not come down due to a delayed monsoon and heat wave. In fact consumption has gone up in the agricultural sector as sowing for the Kharif crop has commenced.

“Low water levels in reservoirs has affected the hydel generation; bad quality of coal, overhauling and technical snags have led to deficit generation in thermal power plants, and restrictions on gas has paralysed gas-based power plants,” officials said.