The TRS Government with its innovative measures of power management and augmentation of capacity, has succeeded in transforming Telangana from a power deficit state into a power surplus state.
This was stated by Governor ESL Narasimhan while addressing the joint session of the State Legislature on the opening day of the budget session on Friday. The most significant achievement of the government over the last 33 months on the energy front has been to end power cuts and to ensure uninterrupted power supply. The people of Telangana have finally realized their dream of this 24/7 power supply to reap consequential benefits, he added.
Narasimhan pointed out that the first major challenge faced by the TRS Government after the formation of the new state was the power crisis. The farmers were heavily dependent on agricultural pump sets. In the past, hardly 4 to 5 hours of power was made available to the agriculture sector and that too with problems like low voltage leading to the transformers getting burnt and affected timely water supply to the crops. The farmers were subjected to untold misery due to this. Even the industrial sector had to deal with power holidays twice a week and the domestic and commercial sector had to suffer power cuts of more than 4 to 8 hours duration, he explained.
The Governor said within six months of the state formation, the well planned, coordinated and concerted steps undertaken by the government helped to tide over the power crisis. Today the government was ensuring quality power supply for nine hours during day time for the farming community This resulted in significant increase in agriculture produce during the current Rabi season and the market yards are brimming with the produce of the farmers, he added.
The aim of the state government, Narasimhan said was to replace power holidays with the concept of “power everyday and any time” by making the state power surplus. This also gave a fillip to the industrial sector by instilling confidence among the investors for reliable power supply. Even commercial establishments and other sectors dependent on power were also stabilizing their activities, he added.
The Governor said that during the ensuing summer season, though the demand for power is expected to reach 9500 to 10,000 MW, the agencies concerned were readying to ensure uninterrupted supply without any break. The government has also embarked upon long-term action plans to augment power generation in the state. While the installed generation capacity at the time of state formation was 6,574 MW, in the last two and half years, the government has created additional generation capacity of 4,190 MW. By the end of current year, further generation capacity 4,130 MW would be added and thus by the end of next three years, the total availability of power shall be 16,306 MW, he added. (NSS)