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A ‘power’less summer

Osama Salman | February 15, 2012 | 0 Comments

The power-cuts are going to haunt you yet again, as the dearth in electricity supply is only going to get worse — the shortfall is predicted to be as much as 25 per cent.

The electricity generation deficit in Andhra Pradesh electricity supply is lower than that of the national average. While the state recorded a deficit of 6.2 per cent between April 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012, the national average is 8.1 per cent. However, that doesn’t spell relief for the citizens.

According to a highly placed source at the Energy Coordination Cell, people will experience power-cuts as they did last year. “We are expecting around 10 per cent shortfall in power supply in February, 28 per cent in March, 25 per cent in April and around 8 per cent in May,” he said.

The biggest constraint in supply of electricity can be linked to reduced generation of gas-based independent power projects which are generating only around 1300 megawatts (MW), whereas the total installed capacity is 2500 MW. This is due to the reduced gas supply by Reliance Industries Limited. The coal stock position in NTPC Simhadri is precarious.

A silver lining, if any, is that the average deficit during January was 3.8 per cent, while in Tamil Nadu, the deficit was 13.8 per cent and in Karnataka, it was 13.2 per cent. Meanwhile, our source also confirmed that the electricity department will buy power at a budget of `1000 crores in the coming weeks.

“The Discoms in the state have already tied up 1,100 MW of power (26 MU per day) from February to May this year. In fact, the peak demand we met in January 2012 was 11,099 MW against 10,848 MW during the same period last year registering an increase of 2.3 per cent,” defended Ajay Jain, chairman and managing director, AP Transco.

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