The mega Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project, to be inaugurated by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on June 21, requires 4,992.47 MW (about 5 giga watts) of power to pump 2 TMC of water from the Godavari river system.
Since some works are still on at reservoirs and various lift projects, the demand is estimated at 4,700 MW this year. Arrangements have been made to meet this demand, D Prabhakar Rao, Chairman and Managing Director of TS Transco, said.
Further, since it has been decided to lift an additional 3 TMC of water from the next year, the demand is likely to go up by an additional 2160 MWs, the necessary arrangements for which have been made. Efforts are on to supply 7152 MWs of power required for the entire Kaleswaram project, Rao said.
The electricity network to support the Kaleshwaram project has been set up at an investment of Rs 2,890 crore. Fifteen dedicated sub-stations have been constructed and 80 high-capacity pumps have been fixed.
Earlier, in Telangana, 30 MW pump-sets were used. But the electric utilities have geared up to pump water at 618 mt height above sea level, thereby, supplying water to arid patches in Telangana state.
“While the Chief Minister has embarked on the ambitious task of supplying water to one crore acres of farmland in the state, we should ensure we reach this target and help reach water to the agriculture sector,” Prabhakar Rao said.
Towards ensuring seamless power supply, the state electricity utilities have made arrangements to meet the load requirement of 4992.47 (5 GW), while setting up 17 sub-stations, including six 400 KV sub-stations, nine 220 KV sub-stations, two 132 KV sub-stations, apart from creating a 400 KV line of 521.08 km, 220 KV line of 461.05 km and 132 KV line of 43.2 km, with a total transmission network of 1025.3 km.
The huge power requirement is due to the use of heavy-duty pumpsto evacuate water to reservoirs.