HYDERABAD: Southern states account for 27% of the country’s power consumption and even managed an all-time peak demand of 60,876 MW this April. Despite the pandemic, the energy sector’s installed capacity in the south has also gone up.
Revealing this at the 42nd Southern Region Power Committee (SRPC) meeting held in Benguluru on Saturday, committee chairperson D Prabhakar Rao, who is also CMD of Telangana State Genco and Transco, said when the entire nation was passing through a critical power situation, the southern states were able to counter the challenges effectively.
He said the southern region handled the huge demand deftly with minimum deviations and strove hard to extend quality and reliable power to all categories of consumers. “Despite facing many constraints, all constituents of southern states met their respective peak demands. Tamil Nadu managed 17,563 MW demand, Karnataka recorded 14,818 MW. While Telangana touched 14,160 MW demand, AP met 12,293 MW. Kerala recorded 4,385 MW and Puducherry 467 MW (in different months of 2021-22),” Prabhakar Rao said.
Prabhakar Rao said the Covid-19 pandemic affected all sections and the power sector was no exception. “Several projects of generation, transmission and distribution had to be slowed down and financials of the sector were badly hit. Despite facing tough challenges on several fronts, the installed capacity of southern region has increased from 1,15,165 MW (as on March 31, 2021) to 1,18,313 MW (as on March 31, 2022) with a capacity addition of 3,148 MW in the last financial year,” he claimed. The southern region has 30% of installed capacity of the country.
