Green Energy Push Key to Meeting Telangana’s Rising Power Demand: Deputy CM Bhatti

Strengthening the green energy sector to meet Telangana’s rising power requirements while ensuring a cleaner and more sustainable energy mix is a key priority of the state government, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said on Friday.

Responding to questions from members in the Legislative Council, Bhatti outlined the major initiatives under the Telangana Clean and Green Energy Policy-2025 and said the government was working towards balancing conventional power sources with renewable energy to meet future demand.

He said the state’s power demand had risen sharply from 15,497 MW in 2014 to 19,543 MW as of September 9. With demand expected to increase further, possibly reaching 20,000-21,000 MW this year, the government was preparing its energy strategy keeping long-term requirements in mind.

As part of its renewable energy push, the government plans to facilitate 2,000 MW of solar power for farmers under the PM-KUSUM scheme. Farmers are being encouraged to establish solar plants with a capacity of up to 2 MW each, Bhatti said.

A pilot project for complete solarisation has already been taken up in the Mannanur Upper Plateau area of Achampet constituency in Nagarkurnool district, he added.

Bhatti said solarisation could also help reduce the government’s growing expenditure on power subsidies. The state currently spends around Rs 14,000 crore annually to provide free power to 29 lakh agricultural pump sets, while another Rs 5,000 crore is spent on supplying up to 200 units of free electricity to 53 lakh domestic consumers.

With nearly Rs 19,000 crore being spent every year on electricity subsidies, gradually shifting towards solar-based power generation could ease the financial burden on the state exchequer, he said.

The move would also help farmers become more self-reliant in meeting their electricity needs. The government aims to expand renewable energy capacity in line with rising consumption and build a stable, environmentally sustainable power system for Telangana, Bhatti said.