Load shedding, power cuts begin in Kurnool district
Vizag shore-based Simhadri NTPC super thermal power station has reduced its production by 30 per cent due to the shortage of coal
KURNOOL: While the average unit cost of power quoted on the power exchange is upwards of Rs 20 per unit between 6 pm to 9 pm, the Transco department has started load-shedding during the peak hours. Though no government order has been officially made, Transco authorities were asked by their superiors to conserve energy and stop supplying power to consumers, an official said.
He said all government offices have been asked to switch off their air conditioners by 6pm. While industrial consumers had been asked to reschedule their production lines when there is power availability, and not run the machines during the evening hours. The average cost of power consumption was expected to be less than '6 per unit by tweaking the production schedules, said a cement manufacturing unit representative.
Private nursing homes and government general hospitals (GGH) would be the worst-affected due to the prime time power cuts.
The Kurnool Government Hospital that has five generators and consumes 20 litres per hour may require 100 litres per day if the power supply snapped in the evening hours. The patients at ICUs can't be neglected due to power outage and the generators must run, doctors said.
A Transco official said Green energy is the only dependable source as the per-unit cost is between Rs 12.19 and Rs 2.40. If the district produces more green energy, that would help power consumers to average on their power bills, he said.
Meanwhile, the Vizag shore-based Simhadri NTPC super thermal power station has reduced its production by 30 per cent due to the shortage of coal. The power station gets coal from Mahanadi CoalFields Limited, Odisha, a senior officer there told Deccan Chronicle on Tuesday.
The officer said the plant was getting eight to ten rakes of coal daily but the supply has been reduced to seven rakes in recent days. Each rake carries 35,000 tonnes of coal. The power plant produces 2,000mw of power and another 25mw is generated through solar plant.
NTPC has 10 captive coal mines in Jharkhand but the coal is not supplied to the Simhadri project. The import of coal from Indonesia has been stopped recently.
Power generated from this plant is shared between multiple states as the operator is national. Power generated by units 1 and 2, making up for 1,000 MW, is dedicated to power distribution companies owned by the AP Government and Telangana. The remaining 1,000mw, generated by units 3 and 4, is allocated to Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, AP, Telangana and Pondicherry as per the shares as decided in PPA.