Power supply remains unaffected as protest by employees begins

Protesters keep their word given to CM of not disrupting supply

Power supply in the Seemandhra region remained largely unaffected on Thursday, the first day of the 72-hour strike launched by the employees of the power utilities.

According to reports reaching Vidyut Soudha, the energy headquarters, till late in the evening, power supply remained as usual in all the 13 districts, barring the scheduled power cuts at mandal and village levels. There were, however, reports that the officials from divisions engineer level and downwards did not attend to complaints as the staff participation in the three-day agitation was almost total.

In spite of persuasion by senior officials, including Chief Engineers and Superintendent Engineers, the staff remained unrelenting on their call for the three-day strike. All the power generating stations, including the Narla Tata Rao Vijayawada Thermal Power Station, remained unaffected as the employees did not resort to tripping of lines or other disruptions in line with their assurance given to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.

“The employees kept their word on not disrupting the services, emergency services such as hospitals, drinking and agriculture sectors in particular,” a senior official said adding there was no report of forcible stoppage of supply from any of the 13 districts. The Rayalaseema Thermal Power Project, however, did not function for the second day in row.

Rains hit RTPP

Power from the RTPP was disrupted following the heavy rains that submerged the generating stations early on Wednesday morning. The situation was not restored affecting the power generation from the station. The deficit was, however, made good by the good inflows into Srisailam project, totalling to about 80,000 cusecs taking the water level close to full reservoir level and this helped in stepping up the hydro power generation.

According to senior officials, the department could meet the peak demand pegged around 10,700 MW on Wednesday through internal resources and short-term purchases. The utilities could ensure supply of 240.47 MU against the demand of 241.12 MU with a deficit of 0.65 MU mainly on account of stoppage of generation from RTPP.