Visakhapatnam: With the mercury-levels on the rise continuously, the power consumption in the jurisdiction of the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Corporation Limited (APEPDCL) has shot up to an all-time high in April.
Contrary to the APEPDCL officials’ estimates, the consumption has crossed the 2400-MW mark on April 14, which was recorded in mid-May last year. The officials estimate that the demand may go up to the 2,600-MW mark in May but the APEPDCL claims it has surplus power and so would not go for any power cuts.
"The APEPDCL, which distributes power to about 53 lakh consumers in the limits of East and West Godavari, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakha-patnam districts, is ready with more capacity than the demand and there would be no power cuts or load shedding this year. The soaring temperatures have increased the demand," informed an APEPDCL official.
The APEPDCL has witnessed a turnaround story since the summer of 2015 - where it successfully squeezed through the season without any scheduled power cuts which lasted the entire daytime in summer, 2014. In 2014, maximum power use hovered around 2,000 units and it peaked to 2,488 units in May, 2015. However, with ongoing glitches, the discom had to impose a load relief of about 500 MW in the last 3 days. According to the superintending engineer, AP Transco, S.V.R. Krishna Mohan, the soil dust, industrial emissions, fly ash and other pollutants settling down on the ceramic insulators coupled with higher humidity levels in the industrial zone of Visakhapatnam have been making the transmission lines trip, interrupting the power supply. "The pollutants are usually washed away with intermittent rains. But as there are no rains in the last 5-6 months, there were tripping incidents which affected the power supply," added Mr. Krishna Mohan.
Power woes continue in N. Andhra:
The power woes due to technical glitches didn’t leave north coastal Andhra Pradesh districts even on Tuesday – the third consecutive day starting from Sunday. Due to interconnected transformer failure at the 400/220 KV sub-station of the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, situated near the Vizag Steel plant, the power supply was cut off to various parts of Srikakulam, Viziana-garam and Visakhapat-nam districts at 4:57 a.m., informed SE, AP Transco, S.V.R. Krishna Mohan.
To rectify this, officials implemented load relief. “About 400 MW of load relief was imposed. At 7 p.m., the load relief was completely lifted.” The officials washed the dust away from the insulators at various sub-stations.
