The four power utilities of Telangana have decided to open control stations at zonal and circle levels to channelise their resources to attend to emergencies and to minimise the response time to restore supply in the event of any breakdown in supply.
A high-level meeting of the power utilities chaired by Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Genco and and TS-Transco D. Prabhakar Rao was held here on Friday to discuss and review their preparedness to ensure 24×7 power supply to all categories of consumers during the increasing spread of coronavirus cases. Several senior executives of the power utilities, including CMDs of southern and northern discoms G. Raghuma Reddy and A. Gopal Rao, respectively, also attended the meeting.
To begin with, it has been decided to discontinue biometric attendance at corporate and other offices of the utilities since one of the main sources for the spread of coronavirus is known to be direct contact. Now, the attendance would be registered in the traditional system of signing a register meant for the purpose till further orders. Thermal scanners would be made available at all important offices.
Since the next couple of weeks are considered very crucial to contain the spread of coronavirus, the operations and maintenance department has been told to procure all the required material and spares in advance and keep them available at all district stores. It has been decided to keep all communication channels and wireless sets at important power plants and sub-stations.
It has been decided to restrict visitors to utilities’ offices as much as possible and to encourage consumers to utilise online complaint mechanism. Hand sanitisers and washing facilities would be arranged at all strategic points and all employees have been advised to use masks at their own cost.
In Vidyut Soudha here, canteen would be kept closed from March 23 and all employees have been told to maintain utmost restraint and not to post or forward any unconfirmed news about coronavirus to avoid spread of misinformation.
To minimise the exposure of its staff to the possibility of contracting virus, the meeting has decided to postpone all overhauling and new capital works in all hydro-electric and thermal power plants and take them up only after the situation becomes normal. All generating stations have been instructed to open control rooms headed by the respective Chief Engineers to take care of all unit-side emergencies.
Mr. Prabhakar Rao stated after the meeting that the power utilities were fully geared up to ensure continuous supply of 24×7 power to all categories of consumers by combating the spread of COVID-19. He assured that continuous supply would be maintained throughout the State with all precautionary measures to ensure that the staff of the utilities do not contract the virus.
