The untimely rains being recorded for over a week in different parts of Telangana have not only brought down the demand of energy in the State considerably but have also reduced the burden on power utilities from going for energy purchases up to 500 MW every day from the exchange in addition to contracted supply.
The drop in demand is on account of reduced consumption in the domestic and agriculture sectors. However, the reduced consumption of energy has increased fluctuation in the demand. In the wee hours of May 6, when Hyderabad city and its surroundings recorded an average of 7.5 cm rain coupled with heavy winds, the demand was down to just 1,620 MW (for the State) from the usual load of around 6,000 MW even during the off-peak hours.
Such high fluctuations trigger a chain of actions including regulating the supplies and shutting down generating units of the State utilities first followed by inter-State generating stations (ISGS) and later the private ones from whom the energy supplies are contracted. “We were forced to shut down all units of TS-Genco with an installed capacity of 2,783 MW and some units of ISGS,” Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Genco/Transco D. Prabhakar Rao stated, when contacted.
As the demand was less than the contracted power of 1,720 MW for several hours, the Discoms have suffered loss by paying for energy that was not consumed. “It becomes inevitable during such circumstances to maintain the grid frequency since we can back-off a maximum of 15 per cent of the contracted supply as per agreements with private power producers,” Mr. Rao explained adding that such fluctuations in demand were only temporary. Official sources stated that the consumption of energy on May 6 was less than 98 million units (MU) against the usual of 135 to 150 MU during the first week of May.
