HYDERABAD: Power outages are back to haunt residents of Telangana, though unofficially. Most parts of the States have been reporting intermittent outages; the problems are widespread in the rural areas where farmers get 24x7 free power. However, TS GENCO officials deny that the power outages have anything to do with the coal shortage that has affected generation in many thermal power plants across India. “Telangana is well placed as far as the coal supply is concerned. We are mandated to have a 21-day buffer stock of coal, and I can safely say that as of today, every single plant has a buffer stock of at least two weeks, if not more,” said a senior TS GENCO official, on condition of anonymity.
However, he admitted that the power outages have become frequent, but insisted that the disruptions in supply had more to do with non-maintenance of transformers and power lines than short supply. The TS GENCO official said that non-maintenance was due to the fact that the State government has failed to release the power subsidy amounts.
The Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana (TSSPDCL) said there were no cuts in Telangana. “On Friday, the demand was 204.566 Million Units (MU) and there was no deficit. Today’s demand will be known at the end of the day and we can reveal it tomorrow,” a TSSPDCL official said. He too said that the disruptions are due to repairs or maintenance works.
While that is the official line, on the ground, citizens are literally sweating it out. The mercury touched 46 0C in erstwhile Adilabad district, and the intermittent power outages added to the woes of the residents.
Several areas across the erstwhile Warangal district too reported facing power outages. Telangana State Northern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Limited (TSNPDCL) authorities said these were due to maintenance works and other management-related works in the agricultural sector.
However, B Sagar Kumar of Ghanpur said that TSNPDCL authorities have started cutting power for two hours every day, but when asked, cite transformer or other such repair works as the reason. Interestingly, Nizamabad is one of the few districts in the State where residents say they haven’t been experiencing many power outages. Nizamabad TSNPDCL Superintending Engineer (SE) R Ravindar said, “There have been no power cuts in Nizamabad recently.”