Power shortage likely to worsen in Andhra

With water inflows into major reservoirs in the state dwindling and no good news on the gas front, the power crisis is set to worsen further.

On Sunday, the mismatch between demand and supply touched a new high of 69 million units as the state’s power utilities were able to supply only around 202 million units against a demand of 271 million units.

Hydel power plants with the generation capacity of 1,910 MW are lying idle for several days due to deficit rainfall in the catchment areas of rivers.

Although chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy was able to restore 2 MMSCMD gas from Ratnagiri in Maharashtra for the state, the government has been unable to procure additional gas supply.

As a result, around eight gasbased plants are lying idle.

In fact, the gas shortage is affecting the entire country and power plants with an installed capacity of around 8,000 MW are not functioning.

In such a scenario, the possibility of the getting additional gas supply is remote.

Besides gas-based plants, the state was getting 650 MW out of the 1,000 MW from Simhadri power plant.

But coal shortage has made a dent in this.