Gales, rain disrupt power supply

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MARCH 9. Parts of the State, including some in the twin cities, plunged into darkness tonight when a series of generation stations tripped due to `bus faults' that occurred to 400 KV transmission lines at Srisailam and to 220 KV Ghanapur sub-station on Hyderabad outskirts caused by strong gales and heavy rain.

The units were brought back and supply was restored after a gap of 45 minutes in each area, according to Mr. M. Gopalachary, Director (Transmission), A.P. Transco. A Grid Operation official said the strong gales caused a bus fault at 6 p.m. to the Ghanapur sub-station which converts 400 KV level flow received through the Power Grid Corporation lines into 220 KV level.

The line tripped resulting in loss of supply to Bandlaguda and Imliban sub-stations which serve parts of Hyderabad. The Chandrayangutta sub-station which receives supply from Srisailam also failed due to the bus fault at Srisailam and the recently commissioned Srisailam-Hyderabad (Mamidipalli) 400 KV line. As a result, most parts of the twin cities suffered a black-out.

Consequent on the line fault, power supply to Anantapur, Gooty and Cuddapah areas came to a halt with frequency going up to 51.5 cycles. Andhra Pradesh got isolated from the Southern Grid on the 400 KV transmission lines connecting Cuddapah to Bangalore and Chennai and Gooty to Bangalore.

As a fall-out, two 210 MW units of Rayalaseema thermal power station, three units of LANCO at Kondapalli, two gas stations at Vijjeswaram and one private plant at Visakhapatnam tripped within minutes.

However, the 400 KV transmission line connecting Kurnool with Vijayawada (Nunna sub-station) turned out to be a saving grace for Kurnool district. This line continued to carry power supply to the Rayalaseema town from Vijayawada. All the units were restored and supply became normal in 45 minutes in all the areas, officials said.

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