Nation celebrates ‘Telangana Vidyuthu Vijayotsavam’ on Monday as part of Formation Day celebrations
Published Date – Mon, 5 Jun 23 at 08:00 AM
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Hyderabad: The country, which celebrated “Telangana Vidyuthu Vijayotsavam” at its Inception Day celebrations on Monday, has become fully self-sufficient in electricity for the past nine years under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao due to severe power shortages. In 2014, the total installed capacity was 7,778 MW, and the power shortage was 2,700 MW. However, within a few years, the state turned around and by 2019-20, Telangana turned into a power surplus state. Currently, the contracted installed capacity is 18,567 MW.
At times, industrial consumers face up to three days a week of power holidays and no power during peak hours. Even home and business consumers faced outages of up to six hours, but today, despite the overwhelming demand, the state government has managed to provide uninterrupted power for home, business and industrial needs.
Telangana is the only state in the country that provides farmers with free electricity 24/7. From 2014-15 to 2021-22, the state government has provided Rs 3,689 crore free electricity subsidies for agriculture. To strengthen the transmission and distribution network in the state, the government has invested more than Rs 39,321 crore over the past nine years, and subsequently electricity production has increased and the distribution network has also been strengthened. The power distribution system has been strengthened by building substations, installing power transformers, distribution transformers and building new lines at a cost of Rs 22,502 crore.
The state recorded a peak electricity demand of 15,497 megawatts on March 30, the highest to date. Earlier in unified Andhra Pradesh, the peak demand was 13,162 MW. Likewise, electricity consumption per capita in Telangana, which is a state development index, has increased from 1,196 units in 2014 to 2,166 units per annum. In fact, it is 69.40% higher than the per capita electricity consumption of the whole of India by 1,255 units.
Starting in 2015, the state government has provided up to 101 units of free electricity per month to 6,01,749 SC consumers and 3,26,335 ST consumers at a total cost of Rs 696 crore. Apart from this, the government is also providing up to 250 units of free electricity to 30,552 Nayee Brahmins hairdressing salons and 60,669 dhobi ghats and laundries.
The state government has provided subsidies of Rs 11,500 crore to electricity distribution companies for 2022-23 to provide free electricity supply to 2.72 lakh agricultural consumers and subsidized electricity to domestic consumers. Telangana is at the forefront of solar power generation in the country, with 5,741 MW of contracted capacity and a total renewable energy capacity of 6,151 MW, up from 74 MW when the state was formed a decade ago.
Today, Telangana is setting an example for other states in the country to achieve rapid development of electricity in a short span of time. Electricity officials in other states are studying the system adopted by the Telangana government and implementing it in their respective states.
