Hyderabad: Amidst rising temperatures, citizens are having a tough time with frequent interruptions in power supply in most parts of the city, especially at night.
Be it Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Cyberabad and surrounding municipal circles, no locality has been spared from power supply breakdowns.
Complaints of power supply breakdown and three-phase supply not working are on the rise in the city. The 1912 call centre is receiving 6,000 calls daily compared to the average 2,000 calls earlier. Though officials maintained that there were no power cuts and that breakdowns were due to overload as consumption had reached a record 55.95 million units per day in the city, citizens suspect that load relief is being taken.
“Why are supply breakdowns occurring when TRS government claims that Hyderabad now has island power supply. The government says there are no power cuts but our locality is reeling under power cuts. At Rajiv Colony near Madhuranagar Ameerpet, power supply was cut half a dozen times on Friday night,” said Ms S. Leelavathi, a retired government employee. She said lack of power supply at night robs people of their much needed rest.
For Mr Venugopal of Shyamlal Buildings in Begumpet, power breakdown at midnight was a major irritant as he had returned after extended hours at work and was preparing to sleep. “You cannot sleep without an air conditioner. The AC is no more a luxury but a necessity. Quite often electricity officials are shutting down three-phase supply and air conditioners do not work on single phase,” he said.
Several residents said if the government wanted to take load relief or shed load, it should announce the schedule so that citizens can prepare themselves mentally.” TS Southern Discom director (Operations) Srinivas Reddy said there were no power cuts and no load reliefs or load shedding being taken.
“Consumption has increased and the transformer and lines are getting over-loaded because of the use of air conditioners leading to tripping of supply for short durations. All interruptions are due to local problems and supply is being restored in the shortest possible time,” he added.
Part of free farm supply wasted
Of the 12,000 million units of free power supplied to the agriculture sector, nearly 40 per cent is wasted due to inefficient pump sets, lack of capacitors and low levels of energy efficiency.
Experts said that though there may be a few cases of farmers misusing free power through illegal connections extended to their homes or by sinking more than one borewell, it would not amount to much.
Up to Rs 3,000 crore worth of power could be saved if energy efficient pump sets and capacitors were installed, say experts. “There are over 20 lakh agricultural pumpsets by replacing which with energy efficient pump sets and installing capacitors, Rs 2,000 crore worth of energy can be saved,” said power sector expert K. Raghu.
If the power department can save 4,500 MU, it would save Rs 3,000 crore and would be able to sell the power to industries at an average Rs 8 per unit.
On the TS southern Discom chairman and managing director’s statement that cases would be booked against farmers installing auto-starters, Mr M. Venu Gopal of the Centre for Power Development, said if the government supplied power as per schedule, no farmer would spend money on auto-starters.
