Solar Power plan transforms Telangana India's pioneer

 Telangana | Written by : Suryaa Desk Updated: Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 03:56 PM

Hyderabad: It is no secret that the sun has been shining brightly on Telangana’s solar power sector in the past three years. Not only has it become the top State in solar power with 3,250 Mega Watts of installed capacity but without fanfare, has emerged as the role model for all other States on solar power generation.

The solar power generation concept implemented by Telangana State was simple and harked back to the adage of not putting all eggs in one basket. The State implemented a ‘Distributed Generation’ plan, something that has proved itself in a short period. “The plan has been so successful here that the Central Electricity Authority has asked all other States to adopt it,” TSSPDCL Chairman and Managing Director G Raghuma Reddy told Telangana Today.

And along the way, Telangana State chalked up impressive savings. “In terms of capital costs alone, we have saved Rs 550 crore. And then we have the recurring savings of about Rs 50 crore every year because our design eliminates transmission losses to this extent,” Raghuma Reddy said.

What the plan prescribes is to think small and in increments when it comes to establishing solar power plants. When Telangana State was formed, its policy on solar power and called for tenders, it decided not to plug for mega solar projects and instead chose to go with generation stations that ranged from 1 Mega Watt to 100 Mega Watts. Big wasn’t necessarily beautiful in the case of solar power generation which suffers from a single enemy – the weather.

“Imagine we have a 1,000 MW solar power project and the weather turns for the worse in a very short period. This would remove a large chunk of power out of the grid throwing the entire power supply in the State at risk. Our plan avoids this risk,” Raghuma Reddy said.