Telangana witnesses rise in power demand

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 to tackle the rising demand in the State.

According to the latest report of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Telangana surpassed Rajasthan, Karnataka and Punjab and reached 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.

Although discoms have been managing supply without much trouble, 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 a huge power demand due to prevailing weather conditions, power officials informed.

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 National Energy Exchange to meet the demand, the officials added.

The power officials said that 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), does not start production by March, there could be some problem to meet the power demand and the discoms have to continue purchasing power from the open market. This would put additional burden on the discoms , which are already under financial stress.