‘Power’ful surge in Telangana as State plans for future

RBI in its latest Handbook of Statistics on Indian States notes that the installed capacity of power in Telangana has doubled from 9,470 MW in 2014-15 to 18,069 MW in 2021-22

By Anil kumar

Hyderabad: For a State that had the availability of power as one of the most crucial challenges before it during the days of formation way back in 2014, Telangana has recorded a stunning surge in its installed capacities, courtesy the initiatives of the State government under Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.

That surge is being acknowledged now, not by the Centre or the State, but by an independent body like the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI, in its latest Handbook of Statistics on Indian States notes that the installed capacity of power in Telangana has doubled from 9,470 MW in 2014-15 to 18,069 MW in 2021-22.

Not stopping with this, the State government is making efforts to increase the total capacity to 28,400 MW over the next 4-5 years.

As per the RBI Handbook, even the per capita availability of power has almost doubled from 1,151.8 crore units in 2014-15 to 2,004.9 crore units in 2021-22. In terms of availability of power during the last eight years there was an increase of 3,000 crore units. During the fiscal year 2015-16 the availability of power in the State stood at 4,064 crore units and in 2021-22 it was 7,052.

Due to the growth in industrial and IT sectors in the State, the power requirement in the State has almost doubled from 4,334 crore units in 2014-15 to 7,054 crore units in 2021-22.

In the renewable power generation field too, the State has made tremendous progress in the last eight years. In 2015, the total installed capacity of grid interactive renewable power of the State stood at 91 MW and due to the efforts of the State government, the present installed capacity has shot up to 4,378 MW.

The State government is speeding up work on all the ongoing power projects to meet the growing demand of power in the State. While Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited (TSGENCO) is making efforts to commission two Stage-I units and synchronise one Stage-II unit of the 5×800 MW Yadadri Thermal Power Station by June 2023, Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has plans to expand its power generation capacity from the present 1,500 megawatt to 4,050 MW. This is apart from adding another 800 MW units at its existing 2X600 MW thermal power plant on Lower Manair Dam (LMD).

SCCL also has plans to set up 1,500 MW solar plants in the mining areas. Once these projects are completed the State can meet the power demand easily, officials say.