The power utilities of Telangana met a record peak demand of 10,000 mw power on Friday and Saturday for the first time since formation of the State. The increase in the demand has been attributed mainly to the uninterrupted power supply to the agriculture sector starting from January 1 this year.
“We are expecting the demand to go up to 10,600 mw to 10,700 mw in the coming weeks but we have tied up to meet the demand even up to 11,500 mw and the transmission and distribution networks are in a position to handle a load over 15,000 mw,” Chairman and Managing Director of the Southern Power Distribution Company G. Raghuma Reddy and CMD of the Northern PDC A. Gopal Rao said here on Saturday, on completion of 50 days of 24×7 power to the farm sector.
Stating that it was a memorable occasion for the power utilities in the State, particularly with the background of their inability to meet uninterrupted supply even to the domestic sector when Telangana came into being, the top executives of the two distribution companies said support from the government and hard work of the employees for the last three years had been behind the success. “We have spent ₹12,136 crore on strengthening the transmission and distribution (T&D) network during the last three years,” they said.
Several States across the country were enquiring with the power utilities of Telangana how they were providing uninterrupted supply to all categories of consumers without any trouble in the system, Mr. Raghuma Reddy said, adding that some States were planning to replicate “our successful model”. They had fears of system breakdown before introducing 24×7 supply to agriculture but were convinced of the system’s efficiency after the trial run conducted in the run-up to the launch of uninterrupted supply to the farm sector, he said.
Strengthening of T&D network had helped the utilities bring down the failure of distribution transformers by about 50% this January compared to the same period last year, the two CMDs claimed. They stated that about ₹84,000 crore investment would be made in public sector power generation and further improvement of T&D network in the next five years which included the expected increase of load on the system from the ongoing lift irrigation projects.
Interest relief
Timely repayment of loans taken from the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) by the State’s power utilities had helped them get the corporation to reduce the interest rate to 9.65% from 12% and 13%. Orders to the effect were expected in a few days. This would be a huge relief since the interest burden was expected to come down by almost 25% – 2.5% to 3% , Mr. Raghuma Reddy stated.
