Kaleshwaram project : Telangana State to buy 2,000 MW from NTPC

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has sought 2,000 MW additional power from NTPC to meet the growing power demand in the State, in view of the upcoming Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, a top TRANSCO official said Thursday.

"We have requested the NTPC to give us 2,000 MW of their unallocated power. We need it from July to November of this year. Once the Kaleshwaram project becomes operational, our power requirements will go up by 2000 MW additionally," TS Transco CMD D Prabhakar Rao said.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had Wednesday announced his decision to inaugurate the Rs 80,000 crore Kaleshwaram project on June 21.

The mega project, a brainchild of KCR, is aimed at making water available for irrigation, industries and drinking to 70 per cent of the districts in the State thereby contributing to the overall development of Telangana, officials said.

Telangana has total 16,300 MW installed capacity of conventional and non-conventional power.

The present demand of power stood at 7,800 MW to 8,000 MW as it was lean season for agriculture. "We are backing down our power stations. Base load itself is 9,500 MW.

So we are backing down our stations now because we get solar power up to 2,800 MW to 3,000 MW during afternoons. We are expecting a load of around 13,000 MW when Kaleshwaram project comes up," Prabhakar Rao said.

The official further said the government opted to buy power from NTPC as it would be cheaper than prevailing prices in the market and also the power utility need not float any tenders.

Rao said the Chief Minister had requested the NTPC officials for additional power, during his visit to the Ramagundam power plant last month, to which the PSU responded positively.