Seemandhra blackout may hit all states served by southern grid

The blackout in Seemandhra, which plunged much of Andhra Pradesh into darkness and severely stressed the Southern grid, has threatened to hit power supplies to other southern states as the strike for a united Andhra Pradesh entered the third day today.

The ongoing strike by power sector employees in the Seemandhra region severely curtailed power generation, which was down more than 4,000 MW, and affected power supplies to all the 13 districts in the Seemandhra.

Power generation at the 1,760 MW Narla Tata Rao thermal power station in Vijayawada, the 1,100 MW Rayalaseema thermal power station and the 770 MW hydel power house at Srisailam has come to a halt.

The strike badly hit essential services such as hospitals and railways. The Visakhapatnam airport was running on generators. The impact is being felt in the Telangana region also, with unscheduled outages.

This sudden drop in generation could, over time, affect the entire southern grid, government sources said.

The 2000 MW NTPC-Simhadri power plant, with four 500 MW units, is generating only 1,500 MW because of shortfalls in coal supplies.

While AP Genco, which currently supplies about 7,200 MW of power said it could scale up generation to 9,300 MW, there were no buyers to draw power with T&D employees continuing their strike.

A senior official at Power System Operation Corporation said the grid is being monitored round the clock to prevent any disturbance. Steps have been taken to procure power through open access to meet the shortfall.

Train services in the South-Eastern Railway zone were hit. Passengers were stranded in several stations in the coastal Andhra region. The power shortage led to the pressing into service of some express trains.

Truck movement between Tamil Nadu and the eastern states of West Bengal, Odisha and Assam have also been hit with many truckers reluctant to enter strike-hit Andhra Pradesh.