Nizamabad: Irrigation facilities lead to less power consumption in northern districts

Nizamabad: With the increase in irrigation facilities in the northern Telangana districts, the area under agricultural cultivation has increased and the power consumption has been gradually declining.

Erstwhile Karimnagar district, which has the highest number of3.7 lakh agricultural wells, has the highest electricity consumption by farmers. Nizamabad district has electricity connection to 1,73,599 agricultural wells. TRNSCO had allotted 1518.934 MU electricity quota to Nizamabad district from April to October last year while only 1,281.693 MU was consumed by customers in NPDCL Nizamabad area.

Electricity consumption has also come down in Kamareddy district. In this district, farmers use 99,409 agricultural wells with electricity to meet their irrigation needs. Despite the uninterrupted supply of electricity for 24 hours, the electricity is not being used as it was in the past. Geologist Vanga Rajkamalreddy opined that the rise in groundwater level and the availability of surface water due to the inflow of Kaleswaram water to various northern Telangana districts is the main reason for consumption of electricity for agriculture use in the district.

In Nizamabad district, normally, crops are cultivated an area of 3,87,860 acres in Rabi season but in 2021, the cultivable area expanded to 4,97,927 acres. Of this, paddy was cultivated in 3,87,635 acres. However, the power saving is approximately 327 MU. The Nizamabad NPDCL statistical data states that it saved 237.241MU on critical demand days from April to October 2021.

Electricity consumption in Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts is likely to decrease significantly due to reduction in paddy cultivation area, according to officials. They said that paddy was planted on 1.40 lakh acres in Kamareddy district during Rabi season last year and was cultivated on 3,87,365 acres in Nizamabad. Many farmers have opted out of cultivation as the government has made it clear that there will be no paddy purchase centers this time.

In Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts, seeds are not available for farmers to cultivate alternative crops . As a result, many bore wells are wasted.

Electricity demand is greatly reduced. Consumption was in excess of the quota allotted in Kamareddy district. It is noteworthy that with the formation of irrigated accommodation, only half of it is used.

Meanwhile, temperatures are dropping due to the cold weather conditions. The average minimum temperature is hovering around 7 to 13 degrees Celcius. Home appliances like fans and ACs are also not being used. Agricultural bores, on the other hand, are not being utilised. The Kamareddy district quota in December was 4.14 MU and only half of it was utilised.