Telangana sits comfortable even as many States reel under power cuts

Telangana is better placed than other States as it has sufficient power to meet the demand

Hyderabad: Even as several States across the country are reeling under long power cuts, with higher than normal temperatures pushing the electricity demand up, the situation is different in Telangana. Apart from a few power supply disruptions during seasonal maintenance works, the State has not gone for load shedding with all sectors ensured of power supply.

The surge in electricity consumption over the summer, along with a national power shortage, however has seen several other States reeling under daily load-shedding requirements. Over the last few days, many States have reported frequent power cuts in residential and industrial areas including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Due to the increase in power demand, State-run utilities in many States are also being forced to buy power at higher costs in order to avoid load shedding.

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According to reports, the April nighttime peak demand in the country was expected to hit 217 gigawatts (GW), up by 6.4 percent on the highest nighttime levels recorded in April last year.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh is witnessing unscheduled power cuts across the State, especially in rural areas. People have been experiencing long hours of unscheduled power cuts since the last few days, with reports pegging the State’s power demand per day between 290 to 297 million units (mu). MP was not able to meet this demand due to shortage of production, which is said to be of 1.73 mu every day in Madhya Pradesh.

Even the BJP-Shiv Sena ruled Maharashtra is facing a power crisis. The Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL) has announced power outages across several areas in Pune’s Sinhagad, Nanded city and Dhayari on Thursday. The overall peak electricity demand in the State was 27,800 MW on April 13 and it is reportedly likely to cross 30,000 MW in coming days. This has become a serious matter of concern for the Maharashtra government.

Interestingly, the poll-bound Karnataka has not announced load shedding this summer with the Assembly election scheduled for May 10. However, media reports indicate that Bengaluru has been facing frequent power cuts, sometimes three times a day, with no part of the city, be it the old Central Business District areas or the outskirts, being immune. The authorities are expecting the peak demand in the State to touch 15,500 MW during May.

On the other hand, Telangana is better placed than other States as it has sufficient power to meet the demand. Except for the purpose of seasonal maintenance and other technical compulsions, power supply has not been affected in the State. In fact, expecting high demand in the months of April and May, the State government had initiated various steps following which it is managing to meet the demand.

For instance on Friday the State’s power demand touched 239.224 Million Units, which was easily met by the power utilities with its internal resources. The peak demand in the State on Friday stood at 12,322 MW, which is much lower than the peak demand of 15,497 MW registered during March. In fact, the power utilities are expecting the demand to cross 16,000 MW in coming days and have made arrangements for tackling the situation.

Since the harvesting season was on, power demand in the agricultural sector has come down, making it a bit easier for power utilities in Telangana to maintain power supply to the domestic and industrial sectors, a senior Transco official said.

During the current summer season, the estimated peak energy demand is likely to go up to 80 MU in Greater Hyderabad.

Last year, in April-May, several States experienced the worst power outages due to shortage of coal and other technical factors. Keeping this in mind, power utilities here took all precautionary measures to ensure that there was no power crisis in the State, a senior Energy Department official said.

According to power officials, the total power production in the State on Friday stood at 242.49 mu, which included 80.289 mu of Thermal power, 1.856 mu of Hydel power and 27.186 mu through Singareni Thermal Power Station (STPS) Plant. Apart from this 92.03 mu were brought through Central Generating Stations (CGS) and 41.129 mu through Non-Conventional Energy Systems.

The State government has asked power utilities to ensure that there is no load shedding during summer and urged all stakeholders to take proactive actions to meet the rising electricity demand, power officials said, adding that power utilities have been directed to undertake maintenance for coal-based power plants well in advance so that no planned maintenance is required during the crunch period.