The power situation has become critical again with the Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Ltd (Apepdcl ) imposing a power holiday for hospitals and industries.
Half-day power holiday has been declared for hospitals for six days, and malls and commercial establishments will have three days power holiday a week.
In the city, domestic consumers will have four hours of power-cut, other towns, five hours, mandal headquarters and municipal towns, six hours a day.
According to Mr H.Y Dora, the Director (Operations) of Apepdcl , “it has been necessitated due to the sudden spurt in demand and severe fall in power generation. We are resorting to load relief so as to ensure normal supply to domestic consumers, drinking water and agriculture connections.”
“Power demand in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, East and West Godavari districts, which come under the jurisdiction of Apepdcl, is 2,300 MW, against the supply of 1,250 MW on Saturday. The supply went up by 100 MW on Sunday, with a shortfall of around 1,000 MW.
Mr Dora said with no rain since August, hydel production had become almost zero. Gas-based power stations were only receiving 30 per cent gas supply, against the installed capacity of 2,400 MW. “The third unit of NTPC Simhadri is generating 300 MW only against a capacity of 500 MW due to poor quality of coal and all these factors have led to the present crisis,” he said.
For the industries, the power holiday at three days a week is declared in two categories. Some are facing holiday on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays and others on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Except IT units, which are exempted and cold storage units with 50 per-cent power cut, none is spared.
The decision on power holiday has come in for criticism from industrialists. “We don't know what to do. Perhaps the Government wants us to shut down our operations,” said Mr Ramakrishna Narappareddy, the President of Visakha Autonagar Small-Scale Industrialists' Welfare Association. “We were taken aback when we came to know late on Friday evening that power holidays are back again,” he said.
Mr O. Naresh Kumar, the CEO of Symbiosys Technologies, said discoms should have proper planning and accordingly they should buy power from power-surplus States/companies, and try to ensure normal supply to the industries.