Consumption of energy and peak load of power in Telangana have been on steadly on the rise following the introduction of uninterrupted supply to agriculture sector from January 1. The peak load on the system touched 10,250 mega watt (MW) on Thursday morning.
According to officials, both the maximum intra-day load of power and consumption of energy are expected to be in the range of 11,000 MW or beyond and about 250 million units (MU), respectively, in the coming weeks when the demand from agriculture sector is likely to go up, particularly during the key stages of standing crops such as paddy, groundnut, maize and vegetables.
The energy demand was steady in the range of 176 MU to 190 MU till February 14, but it has been on the rise from February 15 and the consumption has never gone below 200 MU from February 19, a senior official of Transmission Corporation of Telangana Ltd. (TS-Transco) stated. The peak demand of power crossed 10,000 MW only five times since it first clocked on February 27.
The power utilities are expecting that both the peak demand and energy consumption would go beyond that of Karnataka when the demand for energy is likely to be at its peak in Telangana during the period between last week of March and last week of April. The demand for energy would be high both from the agriculture and domestic sectors during that period, the official said.
Since the 800 MW unit, the seventh stage of Kothagudem Thermal Power Station, is scheduled to go on commercial generation before the demand peaks in summer and as necessary power purchase has already been lined up, there would be no problem in meeting the demand even up to 11,500 MW, said the senior official.
