The Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TSGENCO) is ready to commission its fourth unit of 30 MW at Pulichintala on river Krishna this month if the reservoir gets inflows, but the picture is not very encouraging, as on Wednesday the water level is only 28.83 m against the full reservoir level of 53.34 m.
With the commissioning of the fourth unit, the station will have four units of 30 MW each and take the total hydel generation capacity of the State to 2,430 MW. The corporation is also hopeful of starting commercial operations of a 800 MW unit in Stage VII of its Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS) on August 27 or 28, Corporation Chairman and Managing Director D. Prabhakar Rao has said.
There are presently 11 units of different capacities in six stages of KTPS, totalling 1,720 MW. The latest addition is the 12th unit at the station and takes its capacity to 2,520 MW.
Mr. Rao said the State had surplus power of 5,000 to 6,000 million units owing to a total installed capacity of 15,348 MW.
It includes State’s quota of 3,140 MW in central generating stations, 1,000 MW purchases from Chhattisgarh, 1,200 MW generated by Singareni Collieries Company and 840 MW purchased from Sembcorp Energy India through its coal fired Thermal Powertech Corporation plant at Krishnapatnam in Nellore on a long-term basis.
It was the surplus power position that helped the State meet the highest peak demand of 10,428 MW last week. Conceding that there was a shortage of power in peak load conditions, Mr. Rao said it was overcome by short-term power purchase agreements by inviting tenders on regular basis.
The 24-hour power supply to agriculture shot up the demand considerably, so much so that the Central Electricity Authority anticipated peak loads in excess of 10,000 MW every month, except in May, June, November and December when agricultural operations were lean.
In 2017-18 also, Telangana met the demand almost in full with minor demand-supply gap in some cases for reasons other than non-availability of power. Against a requirement of 60,318 million units, the availability was 60,237 MUs, he said.