Severe power outage in southern states on cards

Uteson

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posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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HYDERABAD: Severe power outage is anticipated across all southern states owing to stoppage of coal supply to thermal stations due..

HYDERABAD: Severe power outage is anticipated across all southern states owing to stoppage of coal supply to thermal stations due to strike by miners of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL)as part of the shutdown in Telangana demanding a separate state.
The first to get hit will be the Ramagundam unit of the NTPC which is expected to reduce the generation by 700 MW tonight. "More units of the 2,600 MW plant will have to be shut down if there is no improvement in coal supply," a spokesman of the state electricity board said.The state owned thermal units are also likely to be affected due to the ongoing strike, while hydel stations may be forced to cut generation owing to decline in inflows into reservoirs.

From tomorrow, the Transmission Corporation is likely to impose cut in power supply for two to four hours in cities and towns. It may be worse in villages.

"There was no coal production yesterday. This will certainly have an impact on our operations. This is not a conventional issue to initiate a dialogue, know their (employees) demands and find out a solution.

He added that 12 per cent (8,000) of the staff attended work on Wednesday and production was marginal (5,00010,000 metric tonnes) at coalfields in Khammam. SCCL produces 1.5 to 1.6 lakh MT of coal per day. Of the total coal production, 40,000 MT is supplied to NTPC's Ramagundam plant and 60,000 MT to APGenco. "If coal production is halted for a day, it will result in a loss of `25 crore to `26 crore," Rao said.