Brace for scheduled power cuts from February

Hyderabad: With temperatures soaring over the last three days and the Rabi sowing season starting, the power demand in Telangana state is expected to shoot up substantially over the next two weeks, leading to more power cuts.

The power deficit will touch 10-15 million units by the end of January itself as per projections. While one to two hours of unscheduled cuts have been experienced in some parts of the city over the last two weeks, they are slated to increase over the next two weeks. Scheduled cuts are likely to be back by February.

The Rabi crop is expected to increase the power demand by 8 mu and the current deficit of 4 mu (taking into account demand from other sectors) will go up at least by another 8 mu.

The TS discoms, meanwhile, have made internal projections of a deficit of 15 mu on an average during January, which will need to be balanced through load relief.

“Although a 10 mu to 12 mu shortage does not result in scheduled power cuts, unscheduled cuts are imposed to deal with the sudden drop in availability.

Unscheduled cuts are being imposed sparingly now, but these will go up in 15 days,” said an insider. Also, the energy demand during the year is expected to go up at a higher rate than previous years.

“Energy demand from domestic and industrial consumers in the urban areas of Warangal, Nizamabad and Karimnagar has shown a growth of 8 per cent.

With enhanced urbanisation, a growth rate of about 11 per cent is expected from 2015 to 2018,” stated a task force report on energy.

The report has projected the average energy deficit during the year 2015-16 at 29 per cent, a jump of 12 per cent from 2014-15.

By its own admission, the TS government has been saying that the energy scenario over the next three years is expected to be in the deficit.

Hydel power generation, too, is not expected to come to the rescue after mid-February when scheduled cuts of up to three hours are being planned.

Power from Srisailam is generally used to maintain supply during peak hours when the deficit runs high. This year, the water level at Srisailam is at 848 feet,  33 feet less than the level last year during the same time. In fact, levels in all reservoirs are lower this year.

Jurala, Pochampad, Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Nizam Sagar and Singur are lower by 10 to 33 feet than last year's levels.