An unexpected change in the weather conditions across the State has plunged the peak demand of power by over 2,350 MW in less than 24 hours — from 11,278 MW on February 8 to around 9,000 MW on February 9 forcing the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation to go for back down in generation in its thermal stations on Sunday.
According to officials, the peak power demand in the State has been 10,000 MW or more since December 16 last with the farmers taking up rabi cultivation in a record extent of about 15.6 lakh hectares, including paddy in over 10.35 lakh hectares.
“The peak demand has clocked 11,000 MW or more on 15 days since January 15 as the paddy transplantation has been going on in top-gear,” a Transco official engaged in monitoring the demand-supply said.
“Backing down the generation in old units is a regular practice whenever there is a huge fluctuation in demand, particularly in the units which have higher variable costs due to their low efficiency. It is necessary to maintain the costs low and also to honour the contracted purchases,” the official explained.
Minimum load
The minimum load clocked on the system on Sunday was less than 7,300 MW taking the variation between it and the peak load of the previous day to around 4,000 MW.
According to the weather department, cloudy weather caused by the interaction of moist easterly winds from Bay of Bengal and cold and dry westerly winds from North India is expected to continue for the next two days with the forecast of light to moderate rain at isolated places over northern and central districts. Thereafter, it would be mainly dry weather.
Groundwater
The energy demand is expected to pick up again and peak during the grain formation stage (paddy) in late-February and March when most of the nearly 25 lakh borewells in the State are expected to pump groundwater as the average groundwater table in January this year has been noticed to be three metres higher when compared to January 2019.
According to the Groundwater Department, the average groundwater level in January this year is 8.88 meter below the ground level against 11.88 meters in January last year.
Peak demand
The power utilities are expecting the peak demand to go beyond 12,500 MW during the ensuing summer and the consumption of energy beyond 250 million units a day.
The highest peak demand clocked on the system was on August 30 last year, when it was recorded 11,703 MW with the consumption of nearly 242 million units.
