HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s assurance of providing round-the-clock free power supply to the farming sector from 2018 Rabi season requires an amount of Rs 7,000 crore and 7,100 MW of power. At present, the state government is supplying nine hours free power supply to the agriculture sector.
However, for 24X7 power supply, the power department needs to augment the existing lines and the state government has to give more power subsidy.
According to an estimate, the state has to spend Rs 6,500-7,000 crore on the power subsidy for 24X7 power supply to tillers. The power sector requires 7,100 MW power for this. “No other state in the country is supplying 24X7 power to farmers,” an official in TSTransco said.
The peak power demand in the state touched 9,191 MW in March. However, there was no power cuts. “We are augmenting the power lines, substations and others for 24X7 power supply to farmers,” officials said.
Officials analysed that the agriculture pump sets would function from 6 am to 9 am.
The domestic power demand during these hours will be high and solar power will not be available during the three hours. “Considering this, we are deciding on how to plan load dispatch from 6 am to 9 am,” sources said.
2,500 MW TO 7,100 MW
It may be recalled that the installed capacity when TS was formed was 6,553 MW. Of which, around 2,500 MW was supplied to the agriculture sector. Later, the TS government added another 4,426 MW. “We are expecting that around 3,500 MW solar power will be added by December 2017. There will be no problem,” officials exuded confidence.
“We are confident enough that we can supply 24-hours free power to farmers,” TS Transco and TS Genco chairman and managing director D Prabhakar Rao said. “We are recruiting new staff to meet the extra work load. It is not our sole priority to create a record in the country to become first state to provide 24X7 power to farmers,” Prabhakar Rao said.