Power crisis ahead for State

• Production comes down
• Officers, staff unavailable

D Gopi

Vijayawada: The State is set to witness major power crisis in the next 48 hours with the electricity employees going on 72 hour long strike from Thursday. The thermal power generation had come down at the two major power stations in Seemandhra posing a threat to the availability of power in the State.

The power generation at the Rayalaseema Thermal Power Project (RTPP) at Kadapa was brought to zero from its 700 mw capacity as the employees joined the strike. Similarly, the power generation at the Dr Narla Tatarao Thermal Power Station (NTTPS) at Ibhrahimpatnam in Krishna district too had come down to 450 mw from its total capacity of 1760 mw. The employees at these two generation units did not report to the duty from the morning shift on Thursday leaving no one to handle the plants, boilers and other equipment.

“The strike by the electricity employees had made a difference with the State set to face major power crisis. The State would go into darkness if the strike hits the distribution lines too, where the staff starting as junior lineman to the line inspector and sub-engineer to the superintendent engineer, are unavailable,” asserted the electricity employees joint action committee State vice-chairman, M Satyanandam.

The communication system is now live only from the chairman level to the chief engineer level in generation, transmission corporations. The staff and officers have surrendered their official mobile SIM cards disconnecting the communication network. “The officers cannot reach us now until we report to duty and take back the SIM cards,” asserted Satyanandam.