Hyderabad: Officials have assured that the power situation in Visakhapatnam will reach close to normalcy over the next 72 hours.
AP transco has restored three 220 kv substations, eight 132 kv substations, nine substations of 33/11 kv capacity and 39 feeders of 11 kv capacity. However, the requirement of heavy equipment like cranes are delaying the process and complete restoration will take a couple of days more.
Officials are restoring LT supply after through testing, keeping the safety of citizens in mind. Electrical equipment, meanwhile, are being brought in from Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to speed up the work. The Telangana government too is sending material for restoration work.
Around 10,500 DTRs have been affected, 20,000 poles have been damaged and power supply to nearly 22 lakh consumers has been affected in all the three districts.
The tentative financial loss to the power sector due to Cyclone Hudhud runs to '1,000 crore, nearly 70 per cent of which is in Visakhapatnam district.
“Supply to 70,000 consumers will be restored by Wednesday night and we will go on increasing the supply by 20 to 30 per cent every day, covering 80 to 90 per cent of HT consumers over the next 72 hours.
However, since there is extensive damage to poles and wires, we will be checking and testing each connection before restoring supply as safety of citizens is paramount. All precautionary measures have been taken to avoid any possible electrical accidents/short circuits,” said TS Energy Secretary, Government Ajay Jain.
Supply to hospitals, drinking water supply and railway traction remain top priority. Also, the four units of NTPC Simhadri, totaling 2000 mw, which were shut during the cyclone are expected to be restored by Wednesday night.
Power supply has been extended to drinking water with the aid of Simhachalam, Narava, Padmanabham and Mindi substations. Efforts are being made to restore power supply to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and Vizag Air Port by Thursday evening.
The Energy secretary, who had rushed to Visakhapatnam to personally look after the cyclone relief operations of the power sector, said that control rooms had been set up at Vidyut Soudha, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and all district head quarters and senior officers were stationed there round the clock for effective monitoring and were personally supervising the power supply restoration works.
