Flood bout in July 2026 fails to help hydel generation in Telangana

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

The demand for energy from all categories of consumers increased in Telangana in this monsoon, mostly from the agriculture sector for drawing groundwater to irrigate the crops.

The relief expected for the power distribution utilities in Telangana from the purchase of energy from the Indian Energy Exchange on daily basis, in addition to the energy purchases tied up through power purchase agreements, was short lived in July with the bout of significant flood lasting for barely two weeks.

Deficient rainfall within the State coupled with below expected level flood into major reservoirs due to the impact of El Nino conditions has not only made life difficult for the farming community and the prospects of first crop (Kharif) uncertain, but burdened the power utilities with high load on the transmission system and led to demand for energy at unexpected level for the season.

Despite 15 of the 32 rural districts suffering deficient rainfall in the range of -21% of the normal to -47% of the normal as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD) data, the extent of sowing/transplantation of Kharif crops has been over 107.17 lakh acres with cotton (47.72 lakh acres) and paddy (41.54 lakh acres) covering a lion’s share, as usual.

Redgram, maize, soybean and greengram have been sown in another 15.03 lakh acres with farmers preferring to raise them as irrigated-dry crops rather than rain-fed crops, as has been the practice a few decades back. Sugarcane, blackgram and jowar are being raised in over another one-lakh acres, according officials of the Agriculture Department.

As a result, the stress on power utilities has been increasing despite the revival of monsoon rains for a couple of weeks. However, the return of the dry spell in many parts of the State is increasing the energy demand along with high load on the transmission system. According to TG-Genco authorities, the peak load was over 15,000-16,000 megawatt for 10 days in July, while it is over 15,000-17,000 MW for 12 out of 15 days in August.

Similarly, the demand for energy from all categories of consumers, mostly from the agriculture sector for drawing groundwater to irrigate the crops, has also been on the rise. However, the contribution of hydel generation, which would generally be significant during the July-September period, has been nominal this year.

“Despite scanty rainfall in the State, we were expecting good flood from the upstream States to enable ample hydel generation. But, the sizeable flood lasted only for about a fortnight and only 86 million units of energy was possible in July against the total energy consumption of 8,238 MU”, a Genco official said preferring not to be quoted.