Govt Pushing State Into Severe Power Crisis: Harish

Former minister and senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao on Thursday accused the Congress government of pushing Telangana into a severe power supply crisis.

Addressing a press conference, he said things have come to such a pass that farmers staged protests in front of electricity substations in 11 districts on Monday.

Harish Rao said major thermal power stations, including Kothagudem, Kakatiya, Bhadradri and Yadadri, have coal reserves for about a week, and that generation was already stopped in Units 1 and 4 of the Yadadri Thermal Power Plant, while Bhadradri Thermal Power Station has been hit because of poor maintenance.

The state’s peak demand currently was around 15,000 MW, adding that of the thermal generation capacity of 7,180 MW in the state, only 3,190 MW was generated on Wednesday, he said.

The government, he said, was purchasing nearly 80 million units of electricity from the Power Exchange at exorbitant prices. “Why people bear the burden of expensive power purchases when sufficient generation capacity exists within the state?” he asked.

He also accused the government of concealing facts by stopping the publication of production, coal supply and coal quality data on the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) website. High-quality coal is being supplied to other states, while Telangana’s thermal stations were receiving inferior-quality coal, he said.

Harish Rao demanded that the government immediately restore full thermal power generation, ensure uninterrupted supply of quality coal to thermal stations, stop unnecessary purchase of expensive power, and provide uninterrupted 24-hour quality electricity to farmers, and improve drought preparedness by filling reservoirs.