Port Blair, March 22: The Lt Governor, Lt Gen A K Singh (Retd), has directed the Chief Secretary, Shri Anand Prakash and the Secretary (Power), to take appropriate action on priority for ensuring uninterrupted power supply, particularly during the examination period so that students are not affected. He has asked the Chief Secretary and Secretary (Power) to have some backup/reserve capacity to cater for emergencies.
These directions have come in the wake of the recent power cuts in the Port Blair and South Andaman area, particularly during CBSE Board Examination period. Separately, the Lt Governor has asked the Power Department to look into the issue of proper maintenance of all power stations and the equipment, including the private ones.
Meanwhile, the Electricity Department has clarified that the Department had to resort to rotational load shedding of 45 minutes from 17th March 2015, as one 5 MW DG Set at IPP, Bambooflat had developed a fault resulting in shutdown of the DG set. Prior to commencement of load shedding, the power supply availability from all the Power Houses in Port Blair and South Andaman was around 37.80 MW and was just sufficient to meet the peak demand of about 37.40 MW.
The failure of the 5 MW DG set has led to this rotational load shedding of 45 minutes duration in the evening peak hours from 05.30 pm to 10.30 pm in Port Blair and South Andaman area.
To tide over the situation and as a stop gap arrangement due to the ongoing Board Examination, the Electricity Department has taken the initiative to re-start the 5 MW Hired Power Plant of New Bharat Engineering Works at Phoenix Bay Power House Complex. The arrangement for drawing electricity from the 5 MW Power Plant of New Bharat Engineering has helped in doing away the load shedding in Port Blair and South Andaman area from March 21, 2015.
