Power outages in Hyderabad

For example, residents of the railway colony and West Marredpally have been facing unscheduled power cuts since three days. “The CM says there will be no power cuts but officials are ordering regular shutdowns. Repairs need only a few hours but a locality going without power supply for three days in a row points at unannounced power cuts,” said Mr B. Krishna, who runs a sweet shop at West Marredpally.

These are not limited to Secunderabad. Malakpet MIM MLA Ahmed Balala said power shutdowns are common in the old city. “The problem is not confined to my Assembly constituency but is happening in most parts of the city. There are two types of shutdowns. One, officials give power shutdown timings in newspapers and the other is emergency works. Emergency shutdowns last several hours,” he said.

Consumers said that electricity officials should inform consumers through WhatsApp or SMS about emergency power cuts. Though there was a proposal to inform consumers about power disruptions through SMS, the idea was given up midway. TSSPDCL Chairman and MD Raghuma Reddy said there is no need for unofficial power cuts as consumption has come down due to winter. “There are absolutely no power cuts and in fact, we have surplus power. For emergency works we cannot give prior intimation as they are taken up based on complaints. To avoid night power shutdowns, day shutdowns are ordered in case of emergency,” he said.

TSSPDCL north circle SE Parvatham said this is the season for repairs. “There are 12,000 transformers in north circle alone and defects show up in 5 to 10 per cent of them. If a feeder is shut down, consumers are informed via newspapers but if it’s a transformer, efforts are made to complete work fast,” he added.

The Telangana government has awarded contracts for setting up thermal power plants with an installed capacity of over 6,000 MW. This will be added to the grid in the next five years.

TSGenco and TSTransco Chairman and MD D. Prabhakar Rao said the 6,000 MW thermal capacity is planned at Bhoopal-pally, Manuguru and Ramagundam and other places.

Speaking at a conference on Powering Telangana organised by the Independent Power Producers Association of India on Wednesday, Mr Prabhakar Rao said abundant sunshine and the availability of vast tracts of land makes Telangana an ideal place for harnessing renewable energy sources like solar energy.

The 6,000 MW projects are estimated to cost Rs 32,000 crore and are being funded by the Rural Electrification Corporation of India and the Power Finance Corporation. “Telan-gana will be power surplus in the next five years,” he said.

Telangana energy department secretary Arvind Kumar said the aim is to make Telangana a power exporter. “We plan to achieve a target of 5,000 MW in solar projects in the next five years. Of this 500 MW was finalised in March and 2,000 MW is in the process of being finalised,” he said.

Responding to the concerns of solar IPPs, he said the Letter of Intent would soon be issued.

Power producers will be asked to submit bids to take up the project. The project would be divided into four to five bids. Later, Discoms will enter into power purchase agreements (PPAs) with private producers. Energy secretary Arvind Kumar told Deccan Chronicle that they are working on the proposal and will soon finalise guidelines.

The Telangana project would be the biggest roof top solar energy project in India, he said. However, the Telangana energy department does not have data about the capacity of existing roof top solar plants in the city and is planning an audit.

Several private buildings in the city have solar roof-top projects. Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited Chairman and Managing Director Raghuma Reddy said they would pay lease fee to all government departments whose buildings are used for generating solar power.