Two years into Congress rule, Telangana’s power sector faces outages, rising demand and stalled capacity

Two years into the Congress rule, Telangana’s once-admired power sector is slipping back into the chaos of the pre-2014 era, with outages, soaring demand, stagnant capacity addition and a string of controversial decisions pushing the State into an avoidable crisis.

After assuming office in December 2023, the Congress government inherited a stable, surplus system built over nine and a half years by the BRS regime. But today, power cuts have resurfaced with a vengeance, stretching for hours. Urban homes and commercial establishments have dusted off inverters and generators, while rural pockets report hours-long outages and damage to thousands of agricultural pump sets due to unpredictable voltage fluctuations, especially during summer.

The Congress government’s response has oscillated between denial and blame-shifting. While Ministers insist that there are



no power cuts, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy himself has alleged sabotage by power utility officials and contradicted his own administration. Punitive notices to field staff have followed, but the core crisis remains unaddressed.

The numbers tell a sharper story. Telangana’s peak demand has surged from 6,755 MW in 2014-15 to 13,168 MW (2019–20) and then to 17,162 MW (2024–25), with a 9.85 per cent rise in the last year alone. Yet, except for two of five units (800 MW each) commissioned from the Yadadri Thermal Power Plant initiated by the BRS government, the Congress has neither launched new plants nor secured long-term power procurement.

Instead, the Cabinet recently approved a third transmission company, widely seen as an attempt to raise fresh loans which could impose additional debt burden on DISCOMS, under the guise of infrastructure development.