As the demand for energy is going up steadily in the State for the last three weeks with the agricultural activity of the Yasangi season gaining momentum, power utilities are gearing up to meet the increasing demand for energy along with their preparedness to meet the expected peak demand during February-March.
The peak demand (load) on the system has crossed 11,530 megawatt during this week and the consumption has touched 212 million units on January 5, with the intensified transplantation of water-intensive paddy and horticultural crops. Yasangi crops have already been cultivated in over 15 lakh acres with over 7 lakh acres being paddy. On their part, the power utilities have tied up with short, medium and long term power purchase agreements to meet the demand, which is expected to cross the 14,000 mw barrier during the February-March period. In addition, they also have plans to make some capacity addition to reduce the burden of spot purchases (from the exchange) of power.
“Work on the third unit of the 4×270 MW Bhadradri Thermal Power Station has already been completed and the final checks were in the process for its commissioning by the month-end,” Chairman and Managing Director of Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TS-Genco) said. It would come in handy when the demand goes up during the peak agricultural activity, he stated.
Work on the fourth unit of the BTPS is also in the final stages and the Genco has plans to commission it too by March-end. But for the delays, first due to a petition in the National Green Tribunal and later on behalf of the agency executing the work, the project was planned to be completed by the end of 2018-19 itself.
Officials of Transco stated that maximum load recorded in the State was on February 28 last year when the peak load on the system was 13,168 mw.
Similarly, the consumption energy touched all-time high in the State on March 18 last year when it clocked 255.34 million units.
“With the availability of water in most of the major reservoirs in the State, the lift irrigation schemes based on them, as also new projects such as Kaleshwaram, are expected to consume bulk of the energy demand along with the agricultural pumpsets during the peak demand period,” a Transco official said.
