Bhatti Directs Urgent El Niño Power Preparedness
He asked discoms to maintain financial discipline and speed up recovery of dues from government departments.
HYDERABAD: Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Saturday asked energy department officials to draw up contingency plans to tackle likely El Nino‑induced drought and the consequent rise in electricity demand, underlining uninterrupted, quality power supply as the administration’s top priority.
Reviewing the power sector here, Bhatti, the power minister stressed that power availability was a must for drinking water supply and agricultural needs if rainfall faltered. He asked officials to 'remain vigilant’ and prepare phased action plans covering power generation, distribution and consumer services.
Energy special chief secretary Navin Mittal and finance principal secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania were present at the meeting along with chairmen and managing directors Jitendra V. Patil (southern discom), Krishna Bhaskar (Transco), Dr Buddhaprakash Jyoti (SCCL).
The key directives included rapid completion of distribution transformer (DTR)‑feeder‑consumer mapping, wider deployment of artificial intelligence for distribution monitoring and transparent service delivery, and expansion of the ‘Power Ambulance’ emergency response, modelled on the 108 system. Bhatti complimented TGSPDCL’s GPS‑enabled fleet of 168 vehicles across 21 circles and the Erragadda command‑control centre for accelerating fault response, and asked for statewide scale‑up.
Bhatti directed that solar lighting be set up for anganwadi centres in phases and to modernise substations with the Midjil (Mahbubnagar) model as the template. To tackle land shortages in IT corridors such as Kondapur, Gachibowli and Madhapur, he proposed coordination with the municipal department to set up substations beneath flyovers.
He asked discoms to maintain financial discipline and speed up recovery of dues from government departments.
On fuel security, he urged SCCL officials to secure new coal blocks and accelerate production. He directed immediate action to complete works at Tadicherla‑2, obtain clearances and start production, and to regain Koyagudem‑3 and Sathupalli‑2 blocks, which were lost earlier. The Deputy CM blamed the previous BRS government inaction for constraining coal expansion, but said the present government’s steps include start and fast-tracking of production at Naini (Odisha).
