Extended dry spell forces Telangana to purchase power

With an additional increase in the consumption of 10.56 crore units, the situation has arisen that it is becoming necessary to buy electricity at high prices from IEX on a daily basis, officials said

Hyderabad: The continuing dry spell for over three weeks has led to a surge in energy consumption in the State, forcing power utilities to purchase additional power from the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) to meet the demand. It is learnt that the power utilities have spent over Rs.1000 crore on purchasing additional power from IEX during the last three weeks.

Officials disclosed that discoms were purchasing about Rs.7 crore worth of power every day from the open access to meet the power demand of all sectors. While 17 crore units of electricity were consumed on an average in the State in July, it reached 27.56 crore units in August. With an additional increase in the consumption of 10.56 crore units, the situation has arisen that it is becoming necessary to buy electricity at high prices from IEX on a daily basis, officials said.

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Generally, the State government releases Rs.1858.33 crore every month under the electricity subsidy scheme, but in the month of August it had to release an additional Rs.200 crore to meet the expenses of additional power purchase from the IEX.

According to power officials, the State government has instructed the power utilities to continue to purchase additional power from the IEX to meet the demand of the State.

“We have been asked to ensure uninterrupted power supply to all consumers. Hence we are continuing to buy power from the open access,” an official said.

Usually during monsoon season, the power consumption decreases considerably as water is available for irrigation due to rain and domestic consumption too comes down.

Last August, the power consumption dipped sharply due to rain and State owned discoms managed to sell surplus power to other States. But this time, the dry spell has caused the power consumption to hit an all-time high in the State. On August 25, the peak demand touched 14,361 MW, the highest during Vanakalam season.

Apart from this, hydel power generation has not completely started in all the reservoirs in the State due to shortage of water. Last year, due to floods in the rainy season, a record 600 crore units of electricity were generated from Krishna water. This year however, not even a tenth of that has been produced so far, an official said.

Due to lack of rains, electricity is being used in large quantities every day to run motors of 27.54 lakh agricultural bores for over one crore acres of crops. Due to the simultaneous running of agricultural boreholes and industries in the morning, the electricity demand is increasing at a record level forcing power utilities to purchase electricity.