Hyderabad : Bountiful rains throughout the Kharif season all over Telangana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, the catchment areas of the River Krishna helped the State to cut down thermal power generation while increasing generation at hydel power stations this season.
In a press note here on Wednesday, the Transmission Corporation of Telangana Limited stated that this year’s generation at Hydel stations stood at 2716 MU as against 1364 MU during the same period last year. The continuous rainfall in the entire State brought down the power demand significantly in the Kharif season enabling the Transco to back down the thermal stations and run them ‘at technical minimum’ while some of them were ‘kept under reserve shut down’. The Transco is also not scheduling from short term contracts, sale of power in the exchange and even backing down of renewables during some days, it added.
The demands in terms of Peak and Energy in the State during October was 8532 MW and 166.35 MU/day, as compared to 10,600 MW and 216.9 MU/day same period during previous year, which is less by 19.5 per cent and 23.3 per cent respectively. Similarly, in September also the peak demand and energy was less by 10 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. “This is mainly due to persistent rainfall in the State, which led to minimum power requirement from farming sector. The requirement of farming sector during Khariff season will be about 45 per cent of total State demand. Also, due to persistent rainfall, the requirement of power from other sectors of consumers also came down”, the corporation explained.
In Telangana State, generally the peak Khariff demand is August, September and October and in the entire Southern Region too power situation would be critical during September and October. But this year due to rigorous monsoon the power scenario in the State and region is changed to surplus compared to last year.
The peak demand in the State in July was 9468 MW this year with a deviation of -9.21 per cent (last year 10429 MW); August – 11703 MW (this year) with a deviation of 14.75 per cent (last year 10198 MW); September – 9749 MW (this year) with a deviation of -9.88 per cent (10818 MW last year); and October – (upto Ocrtober 22) 8532 MW (this year) with a deviation of -19.51 per cent (10600 MW last year).
Inflows into Krishna basin were at a historical high of 1345 TMC due to continuous rains in the catchment areas of Karnataka and Maharashtra. In Telangana, major Hydel power stations are on Krishna Basin and to utilise the maximum Hydel generation all Hydel stations were operated. The lower than usual Khariff demand, high hydel generation and non-materialization of Lift irrigation loads during this year resulted in backing down of thermal stations and payment of fixed cost to generators. With the wide variations in demand and availability, the Transco was maintaining optimum Load Generation Balance by ensuring grid security, the press release added. (NSS)
