Load shedding for more than 5 hours imminent in AP
Thursday, 11 February 2010
IE correspondent
Hydrabad

With government refusing to purchase power, the Discoms have no alternative and have to manage with the power available
In Andhra Pradesh, the power distribution companies (Discoms) have already imposed load sheddings for periods ranging from one hour to two hours in the urban and four to five hours in the rural areas. The duration of the cuts is to get longer as the summer advances. With the water levels in the reservoirs going down fast, the coming summer is going to be hard for people of the State as the duration of the load sheddings are going to be long.

The water levels in the Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam reservoirs are precariously low, severely hampering the power generation. Power generation has virtually come to a halt at Nagarjuna Sagar as the water level is much low. The water level at Nagarajuna Sagar is 528 feet against the full reservoir level of 590 feet and at Srisailam the level is 870 feet against the full reservoir level of 890 feet. The level at Srisailam will come down further with the release for drinking water purposes .

As summer advances, evaporation of reservoir water will be another problem, bringing down the levels to the dead storage .

This year, the APGenco estimates that it will produce about 8,900 mu of power from the hydro power stations but the latest estimate is that it will be 5,500 mu, 50 per cent less than the earlier estimate .

The water levels in other hydro power stations like Jurala and Sileru are also similarly low. The combined power generation capacity of the hydro power stations in the State is about 60 mu but at present it will not be possible to generate even 10 mu everyday. The State needs about 220 mu a day during the summer but the availability of power is only about 150 mu. The Discoms are meeting the demand by overdrawing from the national power grid. yet, they are falling short by about 10 mu every day .

As the summer advances the availability of power from the grid will be less, leaving a huge gap between the demand and the supply. With government refusing to purchase power, the Discoms have no alternative and have to manage with the power available. They inevitably have to resort to impose long cuts in supply to the domestic, industrial and commercial users to meet at least 70 to 80 per cent of the demand.