After the domestic sector which is going through unscheduled power cut ranging from three hours in Vijayawada city to more than six hours in the villages, it is now the turn of high tension industrial consumers to take the hit. The Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (SPDCL) has proposed to impose on them a ‘load relief’ for four hours per day to keep the demand-supply gap under check and maintain seven-hour supply for saving standing crops.
It is holding a meeting with the HT industrial consumers at Chamber of Commerce at 4 p.m. on Tuesday to take their opinion but it is a foregone conclusion that the DISCOM no longer has the elbow room to avoid resorting to load relief.
Therefore, it is only a matter of a day or two for the HT industries in Vijayawada and Tirupati operational circles to brace for power cut from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., Guntur and Ongole circles from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Nellore and Kadapa from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Top officials of the distribution companies went into a huddle at Hyderabad on Monday to take stock of the situation and they will be conveying the ‘shocking news’ after completing the consultations. The exceeding of Contracted Maximum Demand (CMD) by as much as 30 per cent is cited as the main reason for the crisis.
