Sri Vijaya Puram, Aug. 7: It is brought to the notice of General Public/All Govt. Departments /All Pvt. organizations that power supply scenario in South Andaman has worsened in past few months due to shortfall in generation capacity and has unfortunately become critical in the past few days due to the following reasons:
• Closure of 5 MW NVVN Power Plant at Chatham to facilitate vacation of the site for the upcoming installation of a new 10 MW power plant at the same location– It was delivering 5.0 – 5.5 MW (approx.)
• Forced breakdown of 02 Nos. DG sets of Hiring Power Plant at Bambooflat causing an additional shortage of 2.5 MW (approx.)
• Less generation from Solar Power plants during day – average 6.0 MW.
• Noticeable increase in power demand due to sudden rise in ambient temperature– 3.0 to 4.0 MW (approx.) depending on the weather condition.
• Adding to it during re-charging of feeders after load shedding there is a huge spike in demand due to inverter charging and simultaneous switching on of high-power guzzlers and other equipments which creates and additional requirement of – 3 MW (approx.)
Therefore, the grid is witnessing an overall demand more than as expected. This has led to a considerable shortage during day, evening and night hours.
In order to combat the situation mobilization of resources for establishment of 10 MW new Hiring Power plant at Chatham is underway. In addition, all possible stop gap arrangements are being explored. These include drawing extra power from all existing hired plants, rigorous monitoring on daily basis of repair and revival of two DG sets of hired power plant, increasing the generation from the existing solar power plants and also installation of Roof top solar plants to reduce the burden on the Grid power. In addition, the Electricity department has also appealed to the Govt departments and agencies to meet their own power requirements by operating their own stand by installations. This would further help in reducing the burden on the Grid power.
To mitigate the situation and to avoid any further mechanical breakdown of operational DG Sets, the Electricity Department was forced to carry out load shedding on a rotational basis in the Sri Vijaya Puram and South Andaman areas even during day and night beyond the published schedule. The load shedding schedule is being revised for day, evening and night in order to ensure that the public is well informed and can plan their activities accordingly.
The attached mentioned load shedding schedule is purely tentative and the duration & timing may vary depending on available power generation and other technical reasons. The schedule will be in place for a period of 15 days and if there is any significant development, general public shall be notified accordingly.
The Electricity Department in a press release has appealed to the consumers and general public to cooperate, conserve electricity and regulate their consumption to reduce the burden on grid power. The inconvenience caused is highly regretted.