Telangana overtakes Karnataka in day-wise energy consumption

Demand from farm, industrial sectors pulling up demand for energy, peak load

Rising day and night temperatures and increase in demand from agriculture and industrial sectors has made Telangana surpass Karnataka in terms of day-wise energy consumption, making it the second highest energy consuming State in the South after Tamil Nadu.

Consumption of energy has been more than 290 million units for the last five days with over 30% of it being consumed by the agriculture sector as the rabi agricultural operations are in full swing with paddy alone being cultivated in over 54 lakh acres with about half of it irrigated through pumpsets by drawing groundwater as also from canals.

Sources in the two power distribution companies (Discoms) told The Hindu that Telangana had surpassed Karnataka in terms of day-wise energy consumption on February 17 when the consumption reached 289.78 MU against the highest of 287.99 MU clocked by Karnataka in March last year. The energy consumption in Telangana has been more than the Karnataka’s highest-ever so far on 7 days this February with it recording at over 290 MU for the last 5 days.

“Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are more industrialised States compared to Telangana but the consumption of energy here is on the sharp rise due to increase of demand from the agriculture sector as well as from the industrial sector with many new industries established in the recent years. The policy of providing 24x7 uninterrupted supply to all categories of consumers, including free power to agricultural pumpsets, has been jacking up the demand constantly as the number of pumpsets have gone beyond 26 lakh from 19 lakh at the time of State formation,” a senior official explained.

Telangana is expected to overtake Karnataka in the matter of intra-day peak load on the system being recorded constantly at about 15,000 megawatt in Karnataka for about a fortnight soon. The highest peak load on the system in Telangana was recorded on Tuesday (February 28) as it clocked at 14,794 MW.

Meanwhile, Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Genco and TS-Transco D. Prabhakar Rao stated that they were expecting the peak load to touch 16,000 MW this season and energy consumption at over 300 MU constantly during the coming weeks. The power utilities had already spent about ₹1,000 crore on energy purchases in the exchange this season and they were expecting the need for another ₹1,500 crore as the summer peaks.

He told The Hindu that an average of ₹60 crore was being spent on energy procurement in the exchange every day as the energy assured from NTPC’s 2x800 MW project at Ramagundam for dedicated supply to Telangana had been delayed. Had they been commissioned as scheduled, by December-end, the Discoms would have been saved additional expenditure, he felt.