Nearly two-and-a-half years after initiating the process of purchasing power from Chhattisgarh, Telangana is likely to start evacuating power from April first week.
Initially it will begin with evacuating about one-fifth of 1,000 MW intended supply as the demand of energy in Telangana is constantly oscillating around 180 million units for the past few weeks.
The officials of Telangana power utilities are in constant touch with their Chhattisgarh counterparts for supply of power on the newly-commissioned Wardha-Dichpally 765-KV double-circuit transmission line. “They have promised to start evacuating power (about 100 MW to 200 MW) to start with from April 5 or 6 and the transmission network in Telangana is all prepared to avail the supply even as the Dichpally-Maheshwaram link of the transmission line is likely to take a few more months for completion”, a senior transmission utility official said.
It would be scaled up gradually.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed at Raipur in Chhattisgarh on supply of power between the two States in November 2014 when Telangana was facing severe crisis due to peak demand and disputes with Andhra Pradesh utilities in sharing the power generated.
Subsequently, a long-term (12 years) power purchasing agreement (PPA) was signed by the utilities of the two States in Hyderabad in September 2015.
Chhattisgarh will supply power to Telangana from Marwa Thermal Power Station in Janjgir-Champa district.
Sources stated that two units of 500 MW each in the project had been commissioned.
Transmission capacity
Telangana Government had booked transmission capacity of 2,000 MW in the Wardha-Dichpally-Maheshwaram transmission line of the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.
The Telangana Discoms had indicated a price of about ₹ 4 per unit for the Chhattisgarh power in its filings before the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the work on the 800 MW seventh unit of Kothagudem TPS was also on the fast track with the target to synchronise it with the grid by December this year, the official stated.
