Telangana, which has witnessed the fury of rain and floods throughout July affecting normal life and farming operations badly, is facing a peculiar situation — it clocked the highest-ever peak load of power for a day on the transmission system for the month, taking into account all rainy days.
The transmission system of Telangana has recorded three days of over 12,000 megawatt (MW) of peak load, for the first time in the month of July when the monsoon rain generally starts peaking. On July 29, the system clocked the highest ever peak load of 12,468 MW for the month.
The previous highest was logged a day earlier, on July 28, when the system recorded 11,723 MW load, and before that, the highest was 11,512 MW clocked on July 31, 2021. The load on the system is being jacked up with high intra-day temperatures even on rainy days.
Authorities of the TS-Transco, when contacted, explained that the extreme events of clocking highest peak load were being witnessed due to shiny (higher than normal temperature) periods during the day which allow farming operations such as transplantation of paddy, which is peaking during the ongoing Kharif season, that requires flooding of fields where the exercise is taken up.
Officials of the Agriculture department admitted that farmers having their own irrigation facility (bore/open wells) and whose Kharif crops such as maize, cotton, soybean, greengram and blackgram have been damaged beyond chances of revival due to incessant rains for the past few weeks are taking to paddy farming by buying nurseries (seedlings) from fellow farmers.
As per the Kharif Plan-2022, cotton is to be cultivated on up to 75 lakh acres and paddy in 50 lakh acres. However, cotton sowing had been completed on 44.54 lakh acres acres till July 27, and about one-third of it was damaged badly in the recent rains. Paddy is transplanted on 11.11 lakh acres and is likely to rise beyond the planned extent.
Transco authorities stated that energy consumption is expected to go up beyond normal in August, too, with farmers likely to go for paddy transplantation on a large scale. Most of the farmers who have bore/open wells are likely to turn to paddy cultivation as the suitable period for sowing cotton, pulses, soybean, and maize has passed. There are about 26.45 lakh agricultural connections in the State, according to the latest statistics available with the government.
