Power situation continues to be precarious for the second day in succession in the 13 districts of Seemandhra region.
There was shortage of about 40 to 50 per cent in about seven districts and complete shutdown in Kadapa, Anantapur, Chittoor, Prakasam, Nellore and Guntur since morning on Sunday.
Many trains under the South Central Railway jurisdiction were cancelled due to shortage of power in the traction lines.
This was due to the Vidyut JAC launching an indefinite strike from 6 a.m. on Sunday, protesting against the Cabinet’s approval on bifurcation of the State.
Over 70,000 employees from all the wings of Vidyut JAC such as APGENCO, AP Transco and the Discoms in the 13 districts have struck work and there was no generation or repairs taken up. The State requires about 9,000 MW of power and the bare minimum generation required is 5,500 MW for the grid to be stable.
Two major thermal power plants of APGENCO have tripped resulting in a loss of about 2500 MW.
At the Dr. Narla Tatarao Thermal Power Plant near Vijayawada the installed capacity of the plant is 1760 MW and all the six units of 210 MW have tripped and the sole 500 MW unit was producing less than 300 MW.
The repairs for the units that have tripped were not taken up by the striking workers.
At the Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant all the five units have stopped functioning stalling 1050 MW supply. The workers from AP Transco and SPDCL have also struck work and this has put the power situation in a delicate phase.
Late on Sunday evening the situation was a bit better with the Hydel plants at Srisailam and Sileru getting restored.
“The hydel plants did supplement to a certain extent and some amount was drawn from the NTPC Visakhapatnam and the Kothagudem plants. But, things will continue to be unstable till the RTPS and NTTPS generation was restored,” said APSPDCL Chief Engineer K. Raja Bapaiah. He also added that thankfully there was no major breakdown in the day under the SPDCL jurisdiction.
Vidyut JAC Krishna District Convenor Satyanandam told The Hindu that the strike would continue and even emergency services not be attended to, till the central government withdraws its decision or all the 29 MPs from Seemandhra region tender their resignation and bring down the UPA Government.
