Dry weather flags spike in power demand

Hyderabad: With dry weather conditions prevailing in the State the power consumption is rising after nearly three months as various sectors have been consuming more energy.

The demand from the agriculture sector is on the rise as the Kharif crop cultivation reached the final stages. Though the winter has set in the consumption is high due to high temperatures in the daytime.

The power consumption in the State on November 15 was 194 MU as against the 179 MUs on October 15. The power consumption has gone down to 140 MUs in last week of October.

The power distribution companies have begun efforts to meet the current demand by activating all the thermal power stations.

Few TPSs which have been kept idle for the last three months have been put into service. The power consumption has gone down drastically in the last three months due to incessant rains.

The consumption in the agriculture sector has gone down due to the rains. The usage of power in the domestic sector was also low due to more rainy days.

However, from the second week of November the consumption is on the rise as the farmers have been operating motors to draw water.

Apart from this due to rise in the temperature in the daytime, the domestic sector is also using more power. The Irrigation department is running the lift schemes and it also contributing to more use of power.

On the other hand, the power generation from the hydel stations has gone down in the second week of November. The hydel stations have been run to the full capacity in September and October months. Every day about 52 MUs of power was produced through them.

With the flood receding in the Krishna basin, the hydel generation has been brought down and now about 10 MUs are produced to meet the peak hour demand.

The Power Generation Corporation has produced about 3,315 MW of power from the hydel stations. This is the highest generation through the hydel stations in the past five years.

The distribution companies are also buying power from the exchanges in the past one week to meet the demand. The purchases from the exchanges have gone down to 60 MW per day in second week of October.

The officials said that from now on the demand for power would rise as there would be no rains. They said that they are ready to meet the demand from various sectors of the State.