Telangana power test shocks Andhra Pradesh
The power generation component was not as important as the release of water downstream to Nagarjunasagar.
Hyderabad: An uneasy calm prevailed at Srisailam after TS Generation Corporation (Genco) officials conducted a trial run at the Left Bank power house, which is under the state’s jurisdiction, using 600 cusecs of water, without giving notice to AP irrigation officials who control the dam.
Tension over water is rising between the two states due to the reduced inflows into the Krishna river projects even in the first week of September, considered the last month of the flood season.
TS Engineer-in-Chief C. Muralidhar had earlier written to the Krishna River Management Board (KMRB) seeking immediate release of 2 tmc ft of water from Srisailam to Nagarjunasagar to tide over the difficulty in supplying drinking water to Hyderabad and Nalgonda district.
The board sent the letter to AP, which quickly turned down the request,
The rejection angered TS irrigation officials, who accused their AP counterparts of diverting even the little water that the dam is getting to the Muchumarri lift sch-eme without the knowledge of the KRMB. The Muchumarri scheme was launched by AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on September 8 after the water level had crossed the 810 foot mark at Srisailam.
Following this, TS Genco officials manning the 900 MW Left Bank Power House utilised nearly 600 cusecs of water and operated the systems to generate a little quantity of power.
The power generation component was not as important as the release of water downstream to Nagarjunasagar.
The 600 cusecs is nothing compared to the requirement of 45,000 cusecs (about 4 tmc ft) to run the 6x150 MW units to capacity.
“We were not told by TS Genco. The KRMB has placed the control of the Srisailam dam with AP. There was no order from KRMB to release water from Srisailam either through the gates or the power house. We came to know about it only on Sunday morning,” said Srisailam dam chief en-gineer C. Narayana Reddy.
When contacted, TS Ge-nco chairman and managing director Devula-pally Prabhakar Rao said, “It is not true that we started generation, it was just a trial run to check whether the systems were functional. We are generating power from the two power houses in Jurala and releasing water to Srisailam. We have not decided to generate power from Srisailam.”
According to Nagarjunasagar Chief engineer S. Suneel, the TS government can still run the power house to send water to NS dam to tide over the crisis.