VIJAYAWADA: The APGENCO and APPDCL would call tenders for imported coal — 18 lakh tonnes by the former and 13 lakh tonnes by the latter — and the entire tendering process would be completed within a month. This is to meet the urgent requirements of power generation.
Energy minister for energy Peddireddy Ramachandra said that in view of the severe shortage of power, GENCO will expedite the commissioning of the 800MW thermal power plant at Krishnapatnam Phase-2.
National power consumption hit a record of 207 Giga Watts on 29 April-2022. The peak hour deficit was 10.8 Giga watts on April 28, the highest since 2012. Almost all states have faced the peak power shortage on April 28th and some states overdrew heavy quantities of electricity from the grid to meet the demand.
The state has requested the Centre for adequate coal availability for its thermal power plants.
Minister Ramchandra said AP is also facing the same situation due to severe shortage of coal at thermal power plants. As on April 29, the coal stock availability in Vijayawada Thermal Power Station (VTPS) was only for 1.28 days, the Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant (RTPP) for 1.37 days, the Krishnapatnam for 7.52 days and the Hinduja for 1.93 days.
The energy minister said AP does not have coal pit heads and the state would need to depend on Mahanadi coalfields and the Singareni collieries. There is an unexpected rise in demand due to the abnormal increase in temperatures. This further increased power purchase cost and it hit a record high in the last ten years.
He said it is expected that wind generation will start increasing from May 15 in Renewable Energy (RE)- rich states including AP, increasing the availability of power and a further ramp up of wind generation by the month-end.
Energy secretary B Sreedhar said AP Power development corporation limited (APPDCL) has already called tenders for 1 lakh tonnes of better grade imported coal for increasing the generation at Krishnapatnam thermal power plant(2×800 MW). The APGENCO and APPDCL would call tenders for imported coal while power utilities are putting in maximum efforts to improve the power supply position in the state.
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