Harish Rao warns Telangana is heading towards power crisis

BRS leader T Harish Rao accused the Congress government of pushing Telangana towards a power crisis through poor planning and coal shortages. He demanded restoration of 24-hour free power for agriculture and warned of intensified protests if corrective measures were not taken.

Hyderabad: BRSLP deputy leader T Harish Rao raised alarm over Telangana heading towards a power crisis due to coal shortages, poor planning and mismanagement by the Congress government. He said thermal power stations were operating at just 44 per cent of their 7,180 MW capacity, forcing the State to purchase 80 million units of electricity every day from the power exchange at high prices, even as people faced unannounced power cuts.

He demanded the restoration of 24-hour free power for agriculture and warned that the BRS would intensify its protests if the government failed to address the crisis.

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Addressing a press conference at Telangana Bhavan on Thursday, Harish Rao said power outages had affected farmers, students, traders and households across the State. He cited protests by farmers in front of substations in 11 districts over erratic power supply. He alleged that inadequate coal stocks had crippled thermal generation, with Kothagudem, Kakatiya, Bhadradri and Yadadri thermal power stations left with coal reserves for only six to seven days.

“Two units at the Yadadri plant had stopped generation due to a lack of coal,” he said, blaming maintenance failures for the disruption at the Bhadradri plant.

The BRSLP deputy leader said Telangana had an installed generation capacity of about 23,000 MW, but thermal generation stood at only 3,190 MW on Tuesday despite demand being around 15,000 MW. He accused the government of failing to ensure coal supply, maintain water reservoirs and operate power plants efficiently.

Harish Rao pointed out that the Congress government had ignored his repeated warnings about dwindling coal production and a possible shortage of coal stocks since January this year. He alleged that the Singareni website, which carried daily coal production data, had been shut to prevent public access to information on coal production, supply and quality.

“The government is supplying better-quality coal to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh while Telangana thermal stations are receiving poor-quality coal, resulting in frequent rejection of coal rakes and, subsequently, lower power generation,” he remarked.

Questioning the need to buy expensive power from the market while local plants remained underutilised, Harish Rao demanded an uninterrupted coal supply and the immediate restoration of thermal generation. He also alleged that around 3,000 applications under the State’s Green Energy Policy were being delayed. He accused the Congress government of failing farmers on irrigation, power supply, loan waiver, Rythu Bharosa and fertiliser supply.