Higher power transmission loss in north hitting south: South power committee chair

HYDERABAD: Citing the national power transmission loss of 4.49 per cent, southern region power committee chairperson D. Prabhakar Rao said that the loss was at 3.88 per cent for the south zone and that higher losses in the northern region were impacting rightful energy realisation for southern states.

Presiding over the 45th southern region power committee meeting in Pune on Saturday, Prabhakar Rao, who is also the chairman and managing director of Telangana Transco and Genco, said the national load dispatch centre will be asked to consider this aspect while formulating schemes.

He said that the work was underway to two 800 MW units of super thermal power stations being built by the NTPC in Ramagundam. He directed the NTPC to expedite the works, saying that the southern region accounts for 61.4 GW peak demand of the national demand of 215.18 GW, as of March 1.

Prabhakar Rao said that TS Transco has taken up a pilot project of converting 132-KV lines into 220-KV ones by utilising insulated cross arms for upgrading the power capacity of the line, by replacing the existing conductors with HTLS conductors.

“After successful completion of pilot project for a portion of line, now the entire 132-KV line from Gachibowli to Ramachandrapuram for a length of 12 kilometres in Hyderabad is being upgraded to 220-KV line for transmitting higher quantum of power without extra corridor requirement,” he said.

He said that as Telangana is at the forefront of implementing new technologies, power utilities and trying to match up by implementing smart upgrades to resolve corridor constraints, especially in densely-populated cities.

SRPC member secretary Asit Singh and CMDs of southern state utilities were present.