In spite of good rains across the State, which should in normal circumstances curtail power consumption, mainly by the agriculture sector, the demand on Friday peaked to 12,470 MW, which was the highest in the current rainy season and second highest over the years.
The only time when the demand was higher was on February 28 last, with a reading of 13,168 MW, the highest since the formation of Telangana.
Sources attributed Friday’s peak demand to operation of lift-irrigation schemes to divert river water to minor sources and scanty rain in rain shadow areas of the State. The peak demand on this day last year was only 7,310 MW. The highest peak load on Friday was recorded in erstwhile Karimnagar at 2,911 MW followed by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation with a demand of 2,232 MW.
Extensive cultivation of paddy, a water-intensive crop, was cited as one of the reasons for operation of energised motors fitted to borewells in a big way in areas that received scanty rainfall. So far, paddy has been sown on 38.35 lakh acres against the planned 41.76 lakh acres. Last year, the sowings as of date were limited to 9.24 lakh acres. Agriculture officers said the cropping of paddy was likely to increase further as transplantations would continue till the month-end.
The heavy inflows into Krishna and Godavari rivers has resulted in operation of lift-irrigation schemes to divert water to irrigation tanks. As a result, power consumption also went up.
There were an estimated 24 lakh borewells in the State, which consumed a lot of power. The numbers went up after the outbreak of coronavirus with migrant population in Hyderabad returning to their native villages due to lack of employment. They were said to have drilled borewells to settle down in agriculture.