Energy dept told to follow action plan to restore power supply

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has directed the Energy department and power utilities to be fully geared up to meet any kind of situation due to Cyclone Phethai.

The Chief Minister said that the Electricity Department should play a key role and follow the action plan prepared by the State government immediately for better preparedness during cyclones and to avoid inconvenience to the people due to any interruption in power supply to households, drinking water, hospitals and cell towers.  

During a teleconference with Energy department officials on Sunday, according to Ajay Jain, Principal Secretary (Energy), the Chief Minister said the Energy department should take precautionary measures keeping in view the experiences of Cyclone Titli during which some EHT towers and around 40,000 electrical poles were uprooted and it had taken 10-12 days to restore electricity in most of the places.

“The entire department, from CMD of AP Transco to lineman, has to be ready to meet any threat of cyclone at any time. One superintendent engineer should be allotted to each mandal to look after electricity restoration works. People cannot be allowed to face any trouble due to power interruptions during the cyclone,” the Chief Minister said.

He also said that cyclone rectification teams from Kadapa, Anantapur, Kurnool, Tirupati and Nellore circles have to sent on Sunday night to East Godavari, Visakhapatnam and other districts. 

Deployment of sufficient cranes, JCBs, pole digging machines have to be completed by Sunday at any cost and all required materials should be procured and sent to Kakinada, Amalapuram and other coastal areas expected to be affected with the cyclone, the Chief Minister said.

“The AP Transco and Discoms shall have computerised maps of their EHT and 33 KV substations with feeders along with GPS location. Each number of towers and number of poles in each 11 kv feeder should be known and the number of villages and habitations connected to each 11 KV feeder should be known along with their population.  

Similarly, the number of DTRs in each of the villages along with LT poles village-wise should be listed out.  Besides, the number of substations within 5 KM from the coast, 10 KM from the coast, 15 KM, 20 KM and up to 25 KM from the coast should be mapped along with 33 KV feeders, 11 KV feeders, DTRs and LT poles. These measures will help to restore power supply if there is any damage due to the cyclone,” Naidu advised. Several higher officials were also present.