Violations by industrial consumers too could have contributed to Telangana’s inflated demand and energy requirement figures.
On Tuesday too, the Telangana State Power Transmission Corporation (TSTRANSCO) recorded exorbitant Unrestricted Peak Demand, at 8,026 MW. This is much higher than the 6,560 MW recorded a month ago, and even the 7,676 MW recorded just a day before.
The addition of 450 MW demand in just one day is baffling, and cannot be considered genuine, officials say.
The Unrestricted Peak is calculated after taking into account the existing loads on the system, and the loads which could have been there, had there been no load reliefs.
Officials suspect that the anomaly of extraordinary demand figures could be due to ‘Unplanned Loading Instances’, which simply means unauthorised drawing of power during load relief hours. When the grid frequency comes down due to such violations, the centralised control at the respective discom’s headquarters or the State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) would apply emergency load relief elsewhere, and add the corresponding load to the unrestricted demand and the estimates of energy requirements, spiralling up the figures. The unplanned instances are generally assumed to be from agricultural consumers, as their consumption is not metered. However, some officials point out that industrial consumers are equally suspect, as there is ample scope for them to violate the power holiday schedules.Industries, allegedly in collusion with the local discom officials, could be drawing power from the grid during the weekly power holidays, they say. However, unlike agricultural consumers, industries have metered consumption. What’s more, the TSSPDCL has fixed Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) devices to all industrial feeders and substations, which should make it easier for the company to spot the errant consumers and field staff. But as per sources, the AMR data is hardly ever analysed, or any action taken based on it.
“Even if there are violations of load reliefs, there is no penalty prescribed,” a TSSPDCL official confides.
