Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved a request by power distribution companies for imposing Restriction and Control (R&C) measures on the use of power by the industries in the State in view of paucity of power. 

“The Commission is of the view that it is essential to permit the R&C on the use of power by consumers as proposed in order to protect the grid from the failures and to maintain discipline among various consumers,’‘ the commission said in an order.

With this, the power holiday and other R&C measures imposed by the distribution companies with effect from April 8 to April 22 tentatively in the State got sanction from the commission. As per the approved measures, those industries which are operating round the clock will now have to use only 50 per cent of their power requirement. 

All industries should also declare one more holiday for operations in addition to a weekly holiday. In effect, this would limit the working days for industries to five days a week. “A roster will be issued by each distribution company so that load relief will happen every day,” the order said. 

Continuous supply during daytime for seven hours instead of 9 hours will be provided for agricultural purposes. For domestic consumers, there shall not be any load relief during the evening, night, and morning peak hours. In rural areas, a one hour scheduled load relief during daytime between 8 am and 6 pm has been permitted while in urban areas a 30-minute load relief during daytime has been allowed. 

Centre chips in

According to the Union Power Ministry, the Centre has already begun taking measures to meet the normative requirement of coal (0.75 lakh tonnes per day) by the thermal power plants of Andhra Pradesh.

An inter-ministerial subgroup in its meeting held on March 22 advised Mahanadi Coal Limited (MCL) and SCCL to supply 10 rakes and 7 rakes per day, respectively, to plants in Andhra Pradesh. The subgroup also advised them to lift 4 rakes under RCR mode from MCL.

Besides, CIL had offered 4.97 LT during the Round-1 (October, 2021) and 4.50 LT coal during Round-2 (December, 2021) for lifting through RCR/ Road mode to help power plants in Andhra Pradesh to enhance coal stock.

Impact

According to the data available,  the power holiday would adversely impact 253 industries which are working round the clock and 1,696 non-continuous industries under AP Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (APSPDCL) purview. The representation to the Commission seeking imposition of R&C measures was submitted to the Southern Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh Ltd (APSPDCL) on behalf of the three distribution companies in the State. 

As per the representation, the State grid is presently experiencing a daily average demand of around 230 MU and the same is expected to reach 240 MU by the third week of April and there onwards it is poised to recede due to the completion of Rabi crop season. However, the consumption from the domestic category is projected to increase more than the present level in view of the summer season.

Andhra has been facing a deficit of nearly 40-50 MU per day. At present, the State has only 2,000 MW against a demand of 14,000 MW. The demand for power in the State had gone up in recent weeks from an average 190 MU to over 200 MU per day. The deficit power is being procured from the short-term sources through Energy Exchanges on day ahead, week ahead, or real-time market segments. 

The present rates in the market are hovering around ₹10/unit. The average cost of procurement of power from the market for the month of March was around ₹8.10/unit and the situation during April is expected to be grimmer due to the shortage of domestic coal supply, skyrocketing prices of imported coal, the dependence of certain IPPs on auctioned domestic coal instead of imports, the phenomenal increase in grid demand across the country, etc, APSPDCL said.

(With inputs from Delhi Bureau)

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