Homes guzzling power during lockdown in Telangana

Hyderabad: As Telangana completed one month mandatory lockdown as part of measures to fight off the Coronavirus, state has seen drastic reduction in power consumption this month.

Though there is an 20% increase in domestic consumption, overall consumption remains subdued. The demand for electricity consumption is not rising in sync with the temperature in the state.

Though temperature in the city is reaching about 38 to 39 degrees Celsius, there has been a decline in electricity offtake in the state as the industrial sector remains closed in the state.

In the last two days, the power demand was 20% higher, consuming up to 45 million units from a recorded average of 38 MU per day in the first week.

However, the recorded 45 MU in April 2020 is 20 per cent less than that during the previous year, In 2019, the average per day consumption in the month of April was 58.68 MU," informed Srinivas Reddy, Director ( Operations), TSSPDCL.

In April 2020, the highest power consumption observed for the first time was on April 24, 2020 with 45.67 million units.

"Air-conditioners and coolers in Hyderabad were indeed switched on to beat the summer heat, which led to 20% increase in domestic power consumption. On an average domestic consumption would fall between 35 MU to 38 MU," he added.

On April 28, power consumption was 43.8 MU and April 27 consumption was 42.52 MU, which is reportedly causing a constant increase in consumption. Officials say the demand would be more once the lockdown is lifted.