ndhra Pradesh Grid collapse averted in A.P. Special Correspondent Power generation at Srisailam restarted on an emergency basis HYDERABAD: The Srisailam hydel project, which was shut down last week for a month to facilitate repairs to the apron of the dam, was reopened on Friday for power generation to improve line frequency and save Andhra Pradesh from a “grid collapse”. The line frequency nosedived on Thursday and precariously hovered around 48 cycles a second off and on as against the safe level of 49.5 cycles a second, threatening to trip all the power stations in a chain effect and plunge the State into darkness. The AP Transco secured special permission from the government and restarted the generation at Srisailam on an emergency basis to pump extra power into the grid and build up the frequency which then rose to the safe level. Huge capacity The repairs being undertaken to the apron of the Srisailam dam have been kept on hold temporarily to continue the operation of Srisailam right and left bank powerhouses which together have a huge installed capacity of 1,670 MW. At a press conference, Energy Minister Mohd Ali Shabbir expressed happiness that the crisis was averted with the timely operation of the Srisailam powerhouses. He said in spite of the onset of monsoon, the power demand continued at summer level in all the sectors, including agriculture and domestic, due to the dry spell, causing a shortage of 10-15 million units a day. As against this gap, Srisailam provided 13 mu on Thursday evening. Mr. Shabbir regretted that owing to monsoon failure in the peninsular, all the southern States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and the Union Territory of Pondicherry were overdrawing power from Central generation stations, thus ruling out scope for Andhra Pradesh to get any significant help from this end. The floods that occurred in the North-East in contrast, “ disturbed” power stations and transmission systems in West Bengal and Orissa which otherwise would have helped Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Shabbir, however, assured the power cut would not be imposed on any category of consumers under any circumstances. Printer friendly page Send this article to Friends by E-Mail Andhra Pradesh News: ePaper | Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh |Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion |Business | Sport | Miscellaneous | Engagements | Advts: Retail Plus | Classifieds | Jobs | Obituary | Updates: Breaking News|

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