HYDERABAD: As expected, Telangana’s power demand is growing considerably as the state met the highest-ever peak demand of 10,429 MW for the first time after its formation. The highest peak demand was witnessed at 7.33 am on Tuesday.
The demands from agricultural, industrial and domestic sectors were 30 per cent each and the remaining 10 per cent was from the commercial and other categories of consumers. The demand peaked on account of higher consumption by the farm sector. Telangana is the only state in the country which is implementing 24X7 free power supply to the agricultural sector.
The earlier highest peak demand the State met was 10,284 MW on March 8. At the time of formation of Telangana, the highest peak demand was just 6,660 MW on March 23, 2014.“We are ready to meet the demand even if increases by 1,000 MW,” energy minister G Jagadish Reddy told reporters here on Tuesday. The demand for power is expected to increase further during the Kharif season.
“TS Discoms are prepared to meet 11,500 MW peak demand or even more,” TS Genco and TS Transco chairman and managing director Devulapalli Prabhakar Rao said.
The per capita consumption of electricity in Telangana is around 1,507 units which is much higher than the all- India average per capita consumption of 1,122 units or 34 per cent more, he disclosed. FUTURE PLANS: The state is fully geared to meet the ever-increasing demand for power n future.
The 4,000 MW Yadadri power plant will be commissioned during 2020-21 apart from an 800 MW unit of Singareni Collieries and a 2,000 MW solar power plant to meet the future demand. The 1,080 MW Bhadradri plant and the 1,600 MW NTPC plant will be commissioned in 2019.
Prabhakar Rao said that they decided to go in for short-term power purchases for the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS) by September. The average cost of power being purchased by Telangana this year will be around Rs 4.80 per unit.
CM congratulates TS Genco chairman Prabhakar
Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has congratulated and complimented TS Genco and TS Transco chairman and managing director D Prabhakar Rao, on the power utility meeting the highest demand of 10,429 MW for the first time in the history of the new state. Despite such a high demand, power supply was uninterrupted all over the state and no power cut was recorded even for a minute.