Hyderabad, April 20: The state is facing severe shortage of power and the situation is likely to get worse over the next couple of weeks.
Apart from increasing demand for power, there is also a shortfall of power in the state as the generation in most of the hydel power projects have come to a halt. The officials were also unable to procure power from the neighbouring states as they too were facing similar situation.
Compared to normal days in an year, the power usage has increased by about 25 million units (MU).
On an average, about 254 million units (MU) of power is required currently in the state everyday but there is a shortfall of about 12 MU to 14 MU. The officials attribute the reason to increasing use of power in domestic, commercial and agriculture sectors.
In Hyderabad lone, the power usage has increased by about 3 MU over the past one month and there is a shortfall of about 4 MU to 6 MU on any given day.
While the requirement is about 20-22 MU in Hyderabad, the authorities were able to supply about 16-18 MU per day.
Power cuts were being imposed for two-three hours in Hyderabad, its surrounding areas, other major cities/towns including district headquarters.
Further, the distribution companies have declared power holidays for two days in a week to industrial and commercial sectors.
The officials estimate that the demand would go up further in the next a couple of weeks and there could be a shortage of about 20 MU during May.
Sources said that the distribution companies will be left with no option but to impose power holiday for another day, if the situation does not improve in the next two weeks.
“Unless there is a decrease in agricultural usage or supply of additional power from the neighbouring states, we would be forced to impose power cuts for another one hour everyday,” an official said.
–Agencies