Hyderabad: Covid-19 fails to pause power supply, projects constructions

Hyderabad: Undeterred by the Covid pandemic, the State Energy department has been on the forefront in achieving the targets set by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the supply of round-the-clock free power to the farming sector and the goal of completion of all ongoing thermal power project works in a scheduled time, said Telangana TRANSCO and GENCO CMD D Prabhakar Rao on Wednesday.

He was extending greetings to The Hans India on its ninth anniversary celebrations on Thursday and wished many eventful years for the popular English daily.

The official said that the corona crisis has slightly impacted the ongoing works of the two major thermal power projects - Bhadradri Thermal Power Project (BTPP) in Bhadradri Kothagudem district and Yadadri Thermal Power Project (YTPP) in old Nalgonda district.

Despite facing the shortage of workforce, the Genco is making all out efforts to commission the power generation units as per the schedule announced by the government.

Among the four units with 270 MW each, the first unit was already commissioned at BTPP recently, the official said that second unit will be commissioned in July and third one will start operations in September.

The fourth unit will be operational in March 2021. Due to the lockdown, works were stalled at some units after the workers left to their home States. The implementing agency struggled hard with shortage of workforce for a while and took some alternative measures to resume the works, Rao said and added that out of 2,000 workers , only 350 of them were on duties at the YTPP.

The TSGENCO chief said that all the five units with 800 MW installed capacity will be commissioned by September 2023. The first two units will start power generation by next year. Besides, plans are afoot to promote solar power generation in a big way in the State. Project proposals were in final stage. Once the State government approves, the Genco will initiate steps to set up the solar power plants.

The official predicted that the agriculture sector will register a bumper growth since the power demand to agriculture has been increased substantially in the current farming season as against the corresponding year. The Transco was supplying adequate round-the-clock power for agriculture needs in the current farming season.

Rao said that the power consumption in farming sector has increased mainly in the limits of TS Northern Power Distribution Company Limited covering Warangal and other northern Telangana districts where the farming activity was in full swing.

Since the power supply is considered as emergency service in the lockdown period, the official said that all necessary safety measures were taken and the required medical treatment was extended to the officials who were tested positive for the deadly virus.