Copious inflows into Srisailam set to boost hydel power generation

Hyderabad: With good inflows into Srisailam reservoir, the hopes of hydel power generation which would ease the financial burden on the distribution companies are rising.

The water level at Srisailam reservoir is 843 feet at 9 am on Saturday and it has been rising steadily with continuous inflows.

The reservoir is having about 2 lakh cusecs of inflow into it. The storage has reached 67 tmcft which is equal to 200 million units power generation.

The officials at the hydel power project in Srisailam are planning to begin power generation as soon as the level reaches to 850 ft. Last year on the same day the level was 873 ft.

Delayed rainfall in this season kept the reservoir at dead storage level till a few days ago. With plenty of rains upstream, particularly in Karnataka, water is flowing in good quantities into the reservoir.

As the Jurala project has reached its full reservoir level, water from this project has been released to Srisailam. The officials are expecting that the inflow would continue for few more days and reservoir would reach its full level soon.

The power generation capacity of Srisailam is 900 MW and about 20 MU of power can be generated every day. About 4 MU of power has been generated at Jurala Hydel Power Project in this month.

Officials of Discoms said the commencement of power generation at Srisailam would ease the financial burden on them. They said that power would be generated at peak hours on every day for a month or two to meet the demand.

The power distribution companies in the State are under financial strain due to the recent decision of the Union Ministry of Energy. The Union Energy Ministry has restricted power purchase at the will of the distribution companies.

It has directed the Discoms to produce bank guarantee to the power to be procured by them from the Central Power Generation stations and also from the private power producers a day in advance.

The Discoms have to deposit about Rs 1,200 crore per month to purchase power from the CGS and private power producers. The State is procuring about 70 MU from the CGS and the private producers in this season.

They have been spending about Rs 42 crores every day to purchase power from CGS and private producers at the cost of Rs 4.50 to Rs 6 per unit. The hydel power would be available at a cost of Rs 2 per unit.

Even if the Discoms procure about 10 MUs every day from the hydel projects in the next one month, they would be able to save some money every day.