Power supply situation in Andhra Pradesh is grim as 4,000 MW of its total 20,000 MW installed capacity has been completely shut owing to several thousands of State electricity employees are on strike against formation of Telangana.
Simhadri project in Visakhapatnam - which is among the most troubled spots - is left with just a day’s supply of coal, even as the Power Ministry claims that the situation is under control.
Official sources said that despite the dark scenario, the Power Ministry on its part is more focused on maintaining a balance between supply and demand of electricity load within the Southern Grid and for this it has asked the State power corporation to continue with load-shedding (outages) so that the grid does not collapse.
They claimed that frequency of supply and demand is being monitored after every two hours, so that the load does not exceed its limit, as this may lead to the tripping of the Southern Grid
While the Power Ministry is concentrating on the grid, NTPC’s plants in Simhadri (situated in Visakhapatnam) and Ramagundam (situated in Karimnagar, Telangana region) are being run full throttle, sources said, so that electricity supply does not fall short. Owing to this, both the plants are left with one and two days of coal supplies respectively.
However, it is just a matter of days when Simhadri thermal power plant faces a crisis, as it is situated in Visakhapatnam, which is one the worst affected areas due to the anti-Telangana protests which have engulfed Andhra Pradesh since last week. With the imbroglio showing no signs of abating, the Simhadri plant faces prospects of a shutdown owing to its meagre coal supplies getting exhausted. A similar fate awaits the two thermal stations owned by the State Government - Rayalseema project and Narla Tata Rao project.
Ramagundam too has two days of coal left, but as it is in Telangana region, it may not face a crisis-like situation. Kakatiya and Kothagudam thermal projects of the State Government are also situated in Telangana region, so they too are in safe zone as their functioning may not be affected.
Power Ministry officials though claimed that they are maintaining a close watch on the scenario prevailing in the State and denied that the situation was tense, claiming rather, that it was under control as long as the Southern Grid can be saved from collapsing.
They further claimed that other southern States mainly Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have not resorted to ‘islanding’ their grids, as the situation is under control. Islanding means separating of States’ grids from the main grid to avoid any tripping.