Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Nov 06: Major fire inside an Independent Power Producer’s power house has left South Andaman region under severe power crisis.
The fire accident, which occurred in DG Unit No. 3 of 20 MW, Suryachakra Power Plant, Bambooflat on Saturday morning, had reportedly damaged the Unit to a great extent and also damaged two other adjacent units i.e. DG Unit No. 2 & 4 partially.
The Fire Accident had resulted in a shortfall of about 12 MW during evening peak hours and 07-08 MW during off peak hours.
Now it is learnt that acting swiftly the SPCL has repaired both engine number 2 and 4, which were partially damaged and now the SPCL is giving out nearly 10 MW Power.
The engine number 1 was damaged long back and now damage of engine number 3, will create a deficiency of 10 MW power for South Andaman region.
According to details, the power requirement of South Andaman region is nearly 38 MW. The power houses of Administration at Chatham and Phoenix Bay jointly produces nearly 10 to 11 MW of power and hence there is a shortfall of nearly 18 MW power.
Luckily there are two more Independent Power Producers inside Phoenix Bay Power House area who can jointly produce 3+7 = 10 MW of power, which means that there is still a deficiency of nearly 8 MW of power in coming day.
Now it is not clear how the Electricity Department will manage the power shortage but one thing is clear that in coming days Port Blair and South Andaman region may experience multiple, load shedding.
Already people of these Islands are hugely troubled by electricity department’s unscheduled power cuts and now the problems will surely increase in coming day.
The contract of Administration with SPCL will end in 2018,but seems the Administration hasn’t thought of any back up for this 15 MW power, which SPCL provides us. Under such circumstances future of Andaman appears in total dark.
