Telangana stares at power crisis

Hyderabad: The state power utilities are making all-out efforts to see that the power supply in the state does not get affected following the decision of the Union government curtailing the state from purchasing power from power exchanges as they had not cleared the dues.

Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy lashed out at the Centre saying that it was displaying vindictive attitude towards Telangana. Stating that there were no dues to be cleared, he said such a decision by the Centre was nothing short of act of "Desha Droham."

GENCO and TRANSCO Chairman and Managing Director D Prabhakar Rao stated that due to the restrictions imposed by the Centre, the state could not utilise 20 million units. He said the state had already paid Rs 1,360 crore to the agencies concerned and there were no pending dues.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who held a high-level meeting with the Energy Minister, Prabhakar Rao and other senior officials, asked them to take necessary measures to see that there was no power outage. GENCO, it is said, was planning to rely more on hydel power generation to meet the required demand. The officials informed the CM that the government had already paid dues and was buying power as per the rules and regulations prescribed by the Union Ministry of Energy. KCR felt that this was more of a political move. He asked the officials to see that it was resolved soon.

The Transco CMD said that the available power from different sources within the state was sufficient to meet the present demand of 12,000 mw during the peak time. Only 20 million units (MU) power shortage was reported after the state stopped buying power from the exchange. If the demand increases, then there was a possibility of some disruption in the supply, he felt.

Meanwhile, hydel power generation has been increased and it will help the state meet the power shortage to some extent. Rao said that priority is being given to the farm sector as the agriculture operations were on in full swing. During the morning and evening hours, power supply to the farm sector is high and the Energy department will take measures to see that there was no problem.

He also pointed out that the issue of power purchase from the exchanges was pending before the Telangana High Court and the Centre took unilateral decision with regard to the purchase of power by the state government.

He said that special official team has been formed to resolve the power crisis during the peak hours.