The strike call by electricity employees in 13 districts of Seemandhra region led to a major power breakdown in all the costal districts, plunging several villages and urban areas into darkness for varying periods.
In the five north coastal regions as many as 205 major breakdowns of 11 KV transformers were reported in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari districts, while more than 100 breakdowns in 33 KV and 11 KV substations were reported in Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts.
Major disruption
There was no major disruption in the urban pockets, but several villages in Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Prakasam districts went without power for several hours.
The Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited of AP (AP EPDCL) and the Southern Power Distribution Company Limited of A.P. staff are not attending to any of the complaints, but the Superintendent and Chief Engineers are monitoring the situation and getting the repairs/restoration works done since Thursday evening.
There was no power for more than two-and-half hour In Vijayawada at Moghalrajpuram when fuse at the transformer went off.
Control rooms with telephone lines were opened at the EPDCL Corporate Office at Seethammadhra in Visakhapatnam, Eluru and other towns to receive complaints from the power consumers. All the breakdowns in Visakhapatnam that occurred till Friday evening were attended and rectified, chief general manager Vijayalalitha maintained.
Giving details of the breakdown the APSPDCL chief engineer K. Rajabapaiah said that in Guntur district there were 36 major breakdowns on Thursday both in 11 kv and 33kv sub-stations, in Krishna there were breakdowns in two 33 kv stations and in nine 11 kv stations and in Prakasam there were breakdowns in 10 substations. Similar number of breakdowns was reported on Friday too and majority of them were attended.
The chief engineer told The Hindu that repairs at substations were being taken up but there was a delay. “We are managing with the contract workers and hence the delay and the people have to bear with it till Saturday,” he said.
Meanwhile, the power generation and distribution in the State appears to have not been affected. While the total peak demand of the State was 10866 MW on Thursday, the supply recorded was 10766 MW, marginally falling short by just 100 MW.
On the generation front, the total energy required was 245.81 million units and generation was 244.994 MU. The total thermal power generated from the five thermal power plants of the APGENCO on Thursday was 74.609 MU and hydel recorded 31.059 MU. The supply from the Central Grid was 124.035 MU. While the Independent Power Producers chipped in with 12.906 MU, non-conventional energy plants recorded a supply of 2.385 MU.
Meanwhile, at NTPPS in Ibrahimpatnam, the employees resumed work from the third shift of Thursday.
