Andhra Pradesh told not to overdraw power

Vijayawada: The Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (PSOCL), of Government of India, expressed concern over drawal of power from national grid against stipulated schedule by the Andhra Pradesh. The overdrawal of power touched a maximum of 1,565 megawatt (MW) on February 3 and 1,485 mw till 11.30 am on February 4 as per the data available.

In a letter to chairman and managing director of AP Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited, PSOCL executive director V Suresh expressed concern stating that such huge overdrawal of power is impacting the all India grid performance and has to be contained to a narrow band at all times.

He said NTPC has implemented hundred per cent payment security mechanism from Ramagundam Unit 1-6 and Unit 7, Simhadri stage-2 stations with effect from February 3, leading to reduction in availability of power to Andhra Pradesh to the tune of 700 mw.

Additionally, many thermal units have tripped on forced outage in AP system which may take a few more days for revival. It is worth noting that on February 4, 2,240 mw generation capacity is under outage due to various reasons, including annual overhauling, boiler tube leakage.

At this critical stage, the executive director of PSOCL suggested implementation of better portfolio management, revival of units under a war footing and maximisation of hydro generation so as to meet the load demand without overdrawing from grid in line with the Indian Electricity Grid Code provisions.