It will be a tall order for power utilities to ensure 24-hour supply to agriculture which was referred by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in his State formation day address as the demand has to be met for about 23 lakh pump sets in Telangana.
Incidentally, 24x7 power supply to agriculture will also be attempted for the first time.
According to Chairman and Managing Director of transmission and generation corporations D. Prabhakar Rao, the peak demand of agriculture at any given time on a single day was expected to be 7,000 MW for agriculture. It was not likely to be more than this.
This demand was now met in two phases in different time schedules.
As a result, the load got divided and each time the peak demand was 3,500 to 4,000 MW.
The efforts of generation corporation will be to create a system that can withstand a load of 7,000 MW.
The Chief Minister had mandated the transmission and generation corporation to complete balance of works to strengthen the transmission and distribution system before January, he added.
The availability of power to meet the demand was no issue as thegeneration capacity of the State was 12,000 MW and Wardha-Dichpalli corridor to bring power from other States was now accessible.
Mr. Prabhakar Rao said he had joined the electricity department in 1969 and never power was given to agriculture for more than six to seven hours.
The installed capacity in combined AP then was only 435 MW.
