Copious inflows into the two southern river systems Krishna and Godavari have boosted the reservoir levels along their course. This has augured well for stepping up hydel power generation from Srisailam and Jurala hydel power stations and later from the Nagarjunasgar dam.

The Managing Director of AP Genco, Mr. Vijayanand, told Business Line “Genco is able to generate about 45 million units a day from hydel power stations in the State. Of the 3,826 mw of installed hydel power generation capacity, nearly 2,000 mw is under full utilisation. However, we are yet to take up generation from Nagarjunasagar hydel stations, as Prakasham barrage downstream is already full.”

“We will take a call on power generation from Nagarjunasagar too shortly. The good thing about hydel generation is that it has managed to add to power requirement but also helped us take up overhaul works at thermal power stations at Vijayawada, Kothagudam and other locations,” he explained.

The heightened south west monsoon activity and widespread rains in Andhra Pradesh and upstream in Karnataka and Maharashtra have resulted in heavy inflows into all reservoirs over the past fortnight after an erratic monsoon resulting in excess rains in some parts and deficit in others.

And if the current inflows continue into Srisailam from Jurala and other projects and it discharges water stepping up power generation, it wont be long before the Nagarjunasagar reservoir downstream would also be full.

The State’s average energy demand in the past week is about 225 million units. Of this 45 mu is now coming from hydel projects. The levels at Nagarjunasagar is 561 ft (FRL 590 ft), Srisailam 880 ft (FRL 885 ft), Jurala 1043 ft (FRL 1045 ft), Thungabhadra 1633 ft (FRL 1633ft) and Almatti 1703 ft (FRL 1705 ft).

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