Huge demand for power hits farmers hard

Hyderabad: The farming sector bears the brunt of increase in the demand for power for the past one week in the State. With temperatures rising, the power consumption had drastically increased across the State. This has resulted in heavy load on transformers leading to power outage. As a result, unofficial power cuts are being experienced in many districts, affecting particularly the agriculture sector. The farmers who used to get 24-hour free power supply are now facing power cuts up to six hours a day.

Admitting that there has been some disruption in the supply of power to agriculture, the authorities of the Energy department said that heavy load on the transformers could be one of the main reasons for these interruptions.

Officials say that the government was ready to purchase required power for the uninterrupted supply for all. But the problem lies in handling the transmission network when the energy demand reaches its peak.

High demand sometimes leads to technical glitches as most of the agricultural pumpsets run on three-phase connections. However, pumpsets with single-phase connection are exempted from power interruption in some districts. Officials said that in Nalgonda district, power supply to the farm sector has been stopped during the evening hours between 5 pm and 10.30 pm when the domestic power demand is high.

J Nagaraju, a farmer from Annepureddy Gudem of Vemulapally mandal, said farmers were experiencing unofficial power cuts first time in the recent years. The Energy officials have asked the farmers not to operate pumpsets in the evening to avoid transmission trouble.

In Khammam district, power supply to the agriculture was stopped during nights. Palm oil grower Adapa Dora from Dhammapet said that power supply is required in the nights to grow the plants healthy and fast. For the last three days, power supply to his farm has been stopped on the pretext of high-power demand. If the plants are not provided adequate water for a week, they may go dry.

A farmer from old Nizamabad district said that they were facing eight-hour power cut in many parts of the district.

The Palamuru region, particularly the 5 districts of erstwhile Mahbubnagar, are facing unofficial power cuts for the agriculture sector. The farmers of Shankarayapally village complained that they were witnessing power cuts one hour each at various places between 1pm and 2 pm, and one hour from 5 pm to 6 pm. Sometimes, power was not available during morning hours as well, they said. A farmer Ramchander of thanda said that he was facing interruptions to irrigate his 2-acre black gram crop.

Similarly, Hemla Nayak of Malleboenpally from Jadcherla mandal also complained of interruptions in power supply causing problems in irrigating his 3-acre paddy crop.

The highest electricity demand of 14,117 MW was recorded in the history of Telangana on Tuesday. Officials said that they were paying greater attention towards maintenance of grid and transmission network to ensure that there were no breakdowns in the transmission of power.