BRS to send six teams to Telangana power plants amid shortage: KTR

BRS working president KT Rama Rao announced that six party delegations will visit thermal power stations and Singareni headquarters across Telangana on Thursday. The teams will assess generation, coal supplies and shutdowns amid allegations of a power shortage.

Hyderabad: Amid a heightening power crisis, six BRS delegations are scheduled to visit thermal power stations across Telangana on Thursday to assess the ground-level situation and ascertain the reasons for the power shortage and shutdown of generation units. BRS working president KT Rama Rao made the announcement on Wednesday, demanding that the Congress government not obstruct them, unless it was misleading and hiding facts from the people of the State.

The teams will cover Yadadri Thermal Power Station (YTPS) at Damaracherla, Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS), Bhadradri Thermal Power Station at Manuguru, Kakatiya Thermal Power Project (KTPP) at Bhupalpally, Singareni Thermal Power Plant at Jaipur in Chennur and the Singareni headquarters in Hyderabad.

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“These are all public properties. If the government has nothing to hide, it must allow our elected representatives in,” Rama Rao asserted. He attributed the severe power shortage to a coal shortage at Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL). He demanded restoration of 24-hour power supply to farmers and said the six teams would place their findings before the public before deciding the party’s further course of action.

He said the government was unable to supply more than six hours of power to agriculture despite claiming 24-hour supply. Rejecting Energy Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s explanation linking the shortage to El Nino, he said, “This is not El Nino. This is El Congo, a creation of the ruling Congress affecting the State.”

The BRS working president said YTPS, with 4,000 MW capacity, was generating only about 400 MW due to coal shortage, while a 270-MW Bhadradri unit had shut down. Hydel units were also affected due to inadequate water availability, he said.

He stated that Singareni was supplying lower-grade G13 and G14 coal to Telangana plants while its best coal was being supplied to other States. Quoting a senior Singareni official, Rama Rao said the State government owed the company Rs 52,000 crore through GENCO. He also cited multiple news reports that poor-quality coal had caused an estimated Rs 2,900-crore loss to the State exchequer.

Rama Rao reiterated that 40 lakh tonnes of coal had gone missing from Singareni, involving an alleged Rs 1,600-crore irregularity. He questioned why thermal plants were shutting down and coal stocks were reportedly reaching zero if the coal was available. He said Singareni’s production had fallen from 70 million tonnes in 2023-24 to 58 million tonnes in 2025-26.

Contrasting the situation with the previous BRS regime, he said nearly 20,000 MW of generation capacity had been created and the State achieved around 91 per cent PLF. He also pointed out that farmers from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s native Kondareddypally were staging a road blockade over power supply and that growing numbers of industrialists were telling him that 30 per cent of their industrial requirement was being met through generators.

Six BRS teams inspecting power plants:

– The YTPS team, led by former Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy and Nalgonda leaders, will examine why Units 1 and 2 were shut down and why some units were not operating at full capacity.

– The Kothagudem team, led by Rajya Sabha floor leader Vaddiraju Ravichandra and Khammam leaders, will examine coal supplies, generation and plant load factor.

– Former Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar and former MLA Rega Kantha Rao will lead the Bhadradri team.

– At Bhupalpally, MLA Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, former MLA Gandra Ramana Reddy and former Ministers Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Satyavathi Rathod will inspect KTPP.

– The Jaipur plant will be visited by MLAs Anil Jadhav and Kova Laxmi, former Minister Jogu Ramanna and former MLAs Balka Suman, Diwakar Rao, Durgam Chinnaiah and Konappa.

– The sixth team, led by former Minister Koppula Eshwar, MLA KP Vivekananda and MLCs Dasoju Sravan and Shambipur Raju, will visit the Singareni headquarters in Hyderabad.