No power cuts in Godavari region

Kakinada: Despite coal shortage in the State, the newly carved out districts in Godavari region don't have power cuts to agriculture, domestic, medical and education sectors during summer season.

Due to the failure of power grid, all the four 500 MW units at National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) in Visakhapatnam were shut down on Tuesday. According to Transco officials, the impact hasn't been felt in the new districts of Godavari region.

AP Transco Superintendent Engineer TVSN Murthy told The Hans India that there will be no power cut problems for domestic and agriculture purposes in the newly carved out districts of Kakinada, Konaseema and East Godavari. He said the newly formed districts consumes 18 million units of power daily. He said that the power is generated from wind and solar so there will be no power shortage in the districts of Godavari.

The SE said 850 MW of power is required in the three districts of Godavari region and there is likely to be an increase of 900 to 950 MW power in the next few days. He said the government would secure power from Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) as per the requirement and the IEX would release power if informed about the requirement one day earlier. He added that they are also submitting the details of the requirement to the government every day.

Moreover, the government will purchase power Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) as per the requirement and hence the power cut problems don't arise. He said that there are power holidays twice in a week to the Industries.

Speaking with The Hans India, Electrical Department Divisional Engineer N Uday Bhaskar said that only 260 MW of power is available out of 350 MW required in the Kakinada district.

He said that they are providing power supply to seven lakh domestic consumers and 23,000 agriculture consumers in the district. He said there are 200 continue process industries and 300 non-continue process industries in the district. These industries would get a power holiday once in a week other than Sunday, he added.

In the third category like commercial complexes, cinema theatres and others power would be supplied 50 percent only. He appealed to people to save power.

However, in Tribal areas of Chinturu Agency in Alluri Sitrama Raju district, the people are facing power problems now. The farmers in the agency are facing difficulties due to prolonged power problems and they are unable to work in the fields for want of power. During the summer they require water for their crops and due to power cuts the water is not available and consequently the crops are withering away. They expressed anguish that they are investing in cultivation by getting loans from the banks and if water is not available due to power cuts they will be sustaining loss due to lack of crops. And they are questioning how they would bear the loss and who would be responsible for it. At least the government must realise their difficulties and provide non-stop power supply to them particularly during the summer season.