The department has stopped deploying personnel to take meter readings physically as lockdown has been in place in view of Covid-19 pandemic.
VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) on Friday approved the power distribution companies (discoms) to issue April power bill provisionally as per the March bill for all low tension (LT) consumers.
The department has stopped deploying personnel to take meter readings physically as lockdown has been in place in view of Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the communiqué sent to the chairpersons and managing directors (CMDs) of both APSPDCL and APEPDPL, the commission said it accepted the discoms’ request in view of the “extraordinary situation”.
“This acceptance is however subject to the further orders as may be passed after restoration of normal situation,” the commission noted. On Thursday, the CMDs of both the discoms sent letters requesting that the April bill be provisionally issued as per the previous month’s bill. Even in March, meter readers were not deployed by the department keeping in view the lockdown and the department had collected bill as per the previous month’s average.
Lowest demand in 6 years
On Thursday, the State witnessed the lowest electricity demand in six years due to heavy winds and rain in various districts and breakdown of several 33KV and 11 KV feeders in Nellore, Kadapa and Machilipatnam, in addition to the existing lockdown situation in the State.
The demand plummeted to 127 MU (million units) compared to 152 MU on April 8, a steep fall of 25MUs during the day. The maximum demand of the State also fell from 8,100 MW to 6,400 MW on the same day.
The maximum and minimum demands of the State during the day were 6,400MW and 4,150 MW respectively.
There is a difference of approximately 3,300 MW in the afternoon compared to the previous day demand, officials said.
APTRANSCO joint managing director confirmed that it was the lowest demand since HudHud cyclone, which ravaged Visakhapatnam in 2014, and that it posed several stability issues to the grid.
The State load despatch centre and APTRANSCO officials managed the situation by backing down all conventional generation sources alongside curtailing renewable power. The demand started picking up from the early hours of April 10.
Source: newindianexpress
