Amid power crisis, Telangana outshines other States

Hyderabad: At a time when majority of the States in the country are facing power blues following crisis in the sector, Telangana continues to ensure uninterrupted power supply to all the sectors including agriculture, industry, commercial and domestic.

Except for minor outages mostly caused by tripping and transmission disruptions, Telangana continues to meet its peak demand without any hassles, thanks to prior planning and efficient management of coal resources.

Several States across the country are reeling under long power cuts due to increased power consumption caused by extreme hot temperatures. The shortage of coal supplies and soaring prices of coal in international markets triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war too has contributed to the crisis.

This power shortage is being termed as the worst in more than six decades and some States are imposing power cuts stretching to eight hours. Not surprisingly, more than half of the 16 major States facing severe power crisis are ruled by the BJP.

India’s peak power demand breached all records to touch 207 GW on Friday. The power supplied, however, was just 187 GW. Officials say the coal stock availability of 21 million tonnes (MT) at power stations was enough only for nine days.

Rather than importing coal and supplying them to the States, the Centre has placed the onus of coal procurement on States that are struggling to meet the record high price of about $ 288 per tonne. Adding to their woes is the Centre’s failure to arrange adequate railway rakes to transport coal imports to power generation plants in various States.

Telangana, however, overcame the coal shortage through foresight, ensuring adequate coal stocks available at all its thermal power plants. At present, the State is well placed as far as coal supply is concerned, with the State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) meeting the needs. As against the mandatory buffer stock of coal required for 21 days, all the thermal power generation plants have a buffer stock for at least two weeks.

Further, the authorities had made arrangements for efficient handling of power generation and transmission to meet the growing demand even before the summer set in. On Friday, the power distribution companies could meet demand of 204.566 Million Units (MU) without any deficit.

The authorities also reduced Transmission and Distribution losses in Telangana successfully from 16.08 per cent in 2014 to 11.46 per cent during the year 2020-21. The State’s per capita consumption of power was 2,012 units during 2020-21 as against the national per-capita consumption of 1,161 units.

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