VIJAYAWADA: The State government on Tuesday announced a partial withdrawal of the power holiday, following an improvement in the power supply-demand gap. Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) also issued orders to this effect on Monday night.
For non-continuous process industries, there will be no additional power holiday. Only one shift will be allowed during the daytime before 6 pm and no shift will be allowed after 6 pm. Owing to a mismatch between supply-and-demand, the State government, on April 7, had initiated steps to save power, including declaring a power holiday for a section of industries.
Power utilities were asked to implement power cuts for the industrial sector, besides mandating industries functioning round-the-clock to slash their power demand by 50 per cent.Others were asked to declare a power holiday once a week, in addition to their normal weekly off. Besides, only one shift was allowed during the daytime.
Minister for Energy Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy said, “Now the situation has changed. The demand has come down to 186 million units from 235. We have further decided to ensure uninterrupted power supply to food processing industries and their ancillary units, so as to not effect production.”
He further pointed out that the food processing industry, particularly aquaculture and their ancillary units like cold storage, ice factories have suffered. TNIE had on May 8 and 9 highlighted the impact of power restrictions on industries in separate reports.