HYDERABAD: Despite Telangana power utilities not being able to purchase 20 million units (MU) of electricity through the exchange following the Centre’s directive on Thursday, no power outages were reported from across the State on Friday.
However, officials said that they are anticipating some power shortage in the State in the next two to three days. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a review meeting with officials and took stock of the situation.
Though Telangana has cleared all dues to the exchange, the State was not allowed to purchase power. On average, Telangana purchases 20 MU from the exchange every day. “The Centre, without giving any prior notice, directed the exchange not to facilitate power purchases to the State,” TS Genco and Transco CMD Devulapalli Prabhakar Rao told reporters on Friday.
He said he was clueless as to why the Centre issued the direction even after Telangana cle-ared all dues. “There would be agreements between power generators and discoms. As per these agreements, discoms could purchase power,” Prabhakar Rao said.
TS Genco and Transco CMD Devulapalli Prabhakar Rao said that the Chief Minister directed officials to see that there was no shortage of power and no outages. “We have been generating hydel power and increased thermal power generation. There are no power shortages in the State. We met the demand of 12,214 MW on Friday,” Prabhakar Rao said.
He appealed to consumers to cooperate if there are any power outages. “If there is any outage in the coming days, the people should understand that it is not the fault of the State government or electricity employees,” he said.
Demand is generally high between 6 am and 9 am and again between 6 pm and 9 pm, as farmers operate agriculture motors during those times. Meanwhile speaking to reporters in Nalgonda, Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy termed the Centre’s directive to the exchange not to facilitate sale of power to Telangana as “hate-riddled” politics by the BJP government.
Reconciliation error led to bar on Telangana
According to sources, Telangana was barred from power purchase due to an error in the reconciliation of accounts. After paying Rs 1,380 crore on Wednesday, the State on Friday paid another Rs 52.85 crore. Sources said that the figures shown by Power Ministry as due from Telangana were wrong. The sources said that the Ministry uploaded the figures on the website without conducting a reconciliation. On Friday, the officials reconciled the figures with the Power Ministry which then sent the information to NLDC. It remains to be seen whether Telangana would be allowed to purchase power from Saturday onward.