Hyderabad: Frequent outages raise fears of power holidays among industries

Frequent and unscheduled power cuts ahead of summer have alarmed industrial units on the outskirts of Greater Hyderabad, with managements citing production losses, rising costs and potential damage to machinery, while officials attribute disruptions to preventive maintenance works

Hyderabad: Summer is yet to set in but the frequent disruptions in power supply are leaving industries, especially small-scale units, worried. Managements also fear the likelihood of power holidays.

Industrial units operating on the fringe areas of Greater Hyderabad are facing several hardships due to unscheduled power cuts this season. Managements are complaining that apart from affecting production, the disruption in power supply is also resulting in additional burden.

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Generally, maintenance works are taken up on Sundays and holidays. But due to the lethargy of officials in taking up the works effectively, power cuts have become a regular feature in different industrial areas. This has subjected the managements to severe inconvenience with production coming to a halt repeatedly.

Managements of industrial units in Jeedimetla, Cherlapally, Balanagar, Nacharam, Mallapur and Uppal areas complained about regular power cuts in the last week.

In addition to the escalating operational expenses, the managements expressed concerns over the impact on machinery. They fear that unscheduled power cuts could affect the machinery performance besides damaging the motors and premature winding burnout. Plastic units and steel mills are particularly worried as power tripping could impact the production quality and result in loss of raw material.

The Electricity Department defended the power cuts stating that it was a regular phenomenon due to the preventive measures taken up ahead of the season. Before the onset of summer, field level staff take up maintenance works. In the process, there could be a slight disruption in power supply, a senior official from TGSPDCL said.

As there were heavy rains during the last monsoon, the industrial units had a tough time due to power outages. Uprooting of trees, snapping of power lines, transformer explosions, and other issues had disrupted power supply in several industrial estates.

Though the situation improved considerably in the last few months, industrial units are worried that things were turning back to square one.

Though Energy Department officials claim to have arranged all the required equipment well ahead of the season, shortage of AC and DC rectifiers, filters, voltage regulators has been plaguing the department.

Before the State’s bifurcation, during the Congress regime, power holidays were declared for two to three days a week. Industries were supplied power only during night time, forcing the managements to depend on generators.

In the last 10 years, the power supply scenario had improved drastically in the State with the past government laying focus on uninterrupted and quality supply of power.