South Indian states should be ready for upcoming summer peak power demand: SRPC head

Hyderabad: All Southern region states should make plans far in advance for the upcoming summer and rabi season, according to D Prabhakar Rao, chair of the Southern Regional Power Committee.

D Prabhakar Rao, who is also the chairman and Managing Director of TSTRANSCO & TSGENCO, presided over the 44th meeting of the Southern Region Power Committee on Saturday in Kochi. He said that since the peak demand for the southern region during the upcoming summer and rabi season was anticipated to be around 65 GW, states should plan well in advance while taking into account the challenges that the entire country faced during the same period the year before due to an acute coal shortage, sudden outages, and nonavailability of power in exchange.

Prabhakar Rao said that the southern region met its peak demand on April 1 of this year, which was 60,876 GW as opposed to 2,12,000 MW for all of India. In order to achieve the ultimate goal of the best inter-state transmission network, he suggested that the additional transmission network be planned extremely meticulously with the best coordination between the Central Transmission Utility (CTU), Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), and all states.

A narrowing of the frequency band, integration of battery storage systems with live grids, smart grids, automation of load generation balance using auxiliary services, and reliable communication systems are all urgently needed, he said.