Telangana witnesses rise in power demand, discoms put on high alert
According to latest report of the CEA, Telangana surpassed Rajasthan, Karnataka and Punjab and reached 5th rank with its power demand touching 15,573 MW in August
Hyderabad: In the wake of an increase in power demand in the State in the last few months, State-run power distribution companies have been put on high alert.
According to the latest report of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Telangana has surpassed Rajasthan, Karnataka and Punjab and reached the 5th rank with its power demand touching 15,573 MW in August. Uttar Pradesh with 29,126 MW, Maharashtra with 25,855 MW, Gujarat with 21,918 MW and Tamil Nadu with 17,843 MW are the first four.
Power officials said if the 5×800 megawatt Yadadri Thermal Power Station (YTPS) project being constructed in Dameracharla area of Nalgonda district by the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited (TSGENCO) did not start production by March, the State could find it difficult to tackle the rising power demand and the Discoms would have to continue purchasing power from the open market. This would put additional burden on the Discoms, which are already under financial stress.
Although the Discoms have been managing supply without much trouble so far, top officials in the Energy department have cautioned the Discoms to get ready to handle a further rise in demand in the coming months, especially during summer.
Officials say electricity consumption of industries, IT industries, household, commercial and agriculture was increasing rapidly in the State, especially in and around Hyderabad. In recent times, the power demand saw an increase by 23 per cent across the Greater Hyderabad limits. Generally, it goes up by 12 per cent every year and the peak power demand is seen during the summer. However, this time, the month of November witnessed an unusually huge power demand, possibly due to prevailing weather conditions, power officials said.
Officials said the maximum power demand reached 3,756 MW in Greater Hyderabad last year, which rose to 4,352 MW this year. Similarly, power usage increased from 79 million units to 90 MU, recording 15 per cent growth. Discoms are spending Rs.1,000 crore every month to purchase power from the Indian Energy Exchange to meet the demand, the officials added.
If the State government does not manage to get the Yadadri power station running by March, and the power demand continues to keep rising, the financial implications could be severe, especially when the government has kept saying that it was short of cash even for daily operations.
