Energy Minister Gottipati Ravi Kumar has instructed officials of the power utilities to be fully prepared to meet the surge in daily power consumption, which has increased from 218 Million Units (MU) to over 275 MU due to the impact of El Nino.In a review meeting at the Secretariat on Thursday, Mr. Ravi Kumar said plans should be made to appropriately cater to the domestic, commercial, business, and industrial requirements. He also called for steps to prevent any technical glitches in the maintenance of thermal and hydro power plants.The Minister further directed that steps be taken to ramp up generation of renewable energy (RE) to meet the State’s future power needs. The officials should ensure that at least 15 days stock of coal reserves were kept available at the thermal power plants so that there would be no major interruptions in generation. Published - September 03, 2026 07:31 pm IST