Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has urged industries to reduce electricity consumption through efficiency measures as the state prepares for rising power demand from manufacturing, data centres, life sciences and electronics. Speaking at the 25th CII Energy Efficiency Summit-2026 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre on Wednesday, he said saving electricity could be cheaper and faster than generating additional power.
“The unit of electricity we save by avoiding unnecessary consumption is cheaper than the unit of electricity we generate,” Bhatti said. He called for energy efficiency to be treated not only as an environmental measure but also as a strategy to improve economic competitiveness.
The Deputy Chief Minister said energy policy had traditionally focused on the supply side, including generation capacity, coal availability, renewable energy additions and transmission infrastructure. He described energy efficiency as an additional source of capacity because it can reduce demand without requiring a new power plant, coal mine, land parcel or transmission line.
According to Bhatti, electricity consumption can be lowered through efficient motors, advanced cooling systems, energy-efficient buildings, improved industrial processes and smart energy management systems. A permanent reduction in even one megawatt of demand, he said, could ease pressure across the power system.
The state’s electricity requirements are expected to increase as Telangana continues to develop, he said. More investment is needed in industries, manufacturing, data centres, life sciences and electronics, while the state also seeks to improve quality of life and accelerate economic growth. Bhatti said slowing development was not the solution to rising electricity demand; instead, the objective should be to generate greater economic activity from every unit of power consumed.
For industry, lower electricity use could reduce operating costs, he said. A reduction in peak demand would also ease pressure on generation and transmission systems, strengthen energy security and reduce environmental impact and emissions. Bhatti added that energy efficiency could improve resource productivity in addition to lowering operating expenses.
He also called for successful energy-saving practices to be replicated across sectors. A technology developed for the cement industry could potentially be adapted for steel, while an efficiency practice used in a paper mill could offer lessons to other industries. The central challenge, he said, was not a lack of successful pilot projects but the ability to take a solution from one factory and implement it across 100 factories.
Bhatti identified renewable energy, electrification, digitalisation, smart energy management and artificial intelligence as technologies that could support the next phase of efficiency improvements. Sensors could identify where electricity was being wasted, while digital systems could continuously improve industrial processes. Artificial intelligence, he said, could detect patterns that human operators might miss.
He said factories should eventually become active participants in the power system rather than remaining only electricity consumers. He urged industries to continuously monitor energy use instead of treating efficiency as an annual audit. He also called for systems to share successful energy-saving practices and for government, financial institutions, educational institutions, technology organisations and industry to work together to make commercially viable technologies available at scale.
The speech places demand management alongside power generation and transmission as Telangana plans for further industrial growth. The next step identified by the Deputy Chief Minister is wider adoption and scaling of measurable efficiency measures across enterprises.
