 "Telangana CM inaugurates 600 Mw thermal power unit")
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao today formally inaugurated the 600-Mw stage 2 of Kakatiya Power Station, set up by the state power utility TSGenco at Bhupalapalli in Warangal district.
This is the first capacity addition recorded in Telangana state after its formation on June 2, 2014.
The unit 2 comes on stream nearly six years after the unit 1 with a 500 Mw of installed capacity was commissioned way back in the year 2010.
The delay in execution has resulted in escalation of project cost to Rs 4,334 crore, which works out at a per megawatt cost of Rs 7.22 crore, according to the energy officials.
Telangana state was borne as a power deficit state as most of the thermal power capacity was located in the truncated Andhra Pradesh.
The demand-supply gap stood at around 2,000 Mw, which was being largely bridged through purchase of additional power from outside the state. Last year the state government had signed an MoU with Chattishgarh government to procure 1,000 Mw power after the transmission corridor was created between the two states.
Telangaana state has drawn up ambitious capacity addition plans to become a power surplus state in the next couple of years. An additional 6,000 Mw of capacity is proposed to be added to the grid by T S Genco by the year 2018-19.
Unit 2 of Kakatiya Power Station was synchronised with the grid in October last year. The total installed capacity of TSGenco power projects now increases to 4,963 Mw, which also include 2,081 Mw of hydro electric power.