Vijayawada: Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Wednesday that AP would get 93 million units of power — 45mu from Solar Energy Corporation in three years and 48mu from local power units shortly — to help overcome the power shortage in the state.
The CM chaired a high-level review meeting on energy with minister Peddireddy Ramachandra and top officials. He said that following the signing of a pact with SECI, they would get 18mu towards the end of 2023 in phase-I, followed by 18mu in phase-II and nine mu in the third phase.
He said AP would also get additional power to the tune of 800mw from Krishnapatnam and 800mw from VTPS in addition to getting 30mu if 85 per cent plant load factor is taken into consideration. This will take the total availability of 48mu of power in the state soon.
He directed the officials to expedite completion of the new power project with a capacity of 1,350mw at Sileru.
The officials informed the CM that they would call the tenders for the Sileru power project soon as the DPR was already prepared. They promised to get 800mw of power from the Krishnapatnam power project by July-August.
The CM asked officials to speed up the works on Polavaram hydel power project of 800mw capacity, so that AP could realise the dream of having surplus power.
The CM directed the officials to ensure continuous supply of power to the industrial sector to avoid any negative impact on the state’s economy and laid stress on the preparation of an action plan involving stakeholders to supply power as per need. He stressed that AP should not face power crisis in the next summer.
The CM asked officials to adopt the best alternative mode of power generation by taking up pumped- storage hydro power projects as AP was conducive for initiation of such projects at 29 places, and felt the need to take up land acquisition for such projects. This would help generate 33,240mw of power from these projects.
He said once these projects were executed, it would help the state avoid power purchase at higher rates to overcome shortage of power during peak hours. Once these projects are executed, they would keep supplying power for 90 years, Jagan added.
The CM underscored the need to remit free power charges into the bank accounts of the beneficiary farmers so that they would, in turn, pay to the Discoms through DBT. He laid stress on quality power supply.
The officials informed the CM that a pilot project taken up in Srikakulam to fix meter for free power connection was successful. The farmers were paying charges directly from their accounts. A total of 101.51 mu of power was consumed for 26,083 power connections in the district in 2020-22. The number of connections had gone up to 28,393 by 2021-22 with power consumption recorded at 67.76mu. The reforms and the direct payment by the farmers helped save 33.75mu of power even as the number of power connections went up.
The CM asked official to implement the YSR Jala Kala in a transparent manner and said they were providing equipment worth Rs 2 lakh for electrification works in addition to offering a motor free of cost.
On the other hand, the officials briefed the CM about the short supply of coal nation-wide. This, they said, was having its impact on the power sector and that several states were facing short supply of coal due to disruption in supply chain.
They said that the railway authorities were unable to arrange adequate number of rakes for transport and vessels were also not available as per requirement.
The Centre has hinted about a continuation of the coal crisis for the next two years. In response to this, the CM asked officials them to come up with an action plan, keeping in mind the demand for purchase of coal.
The officials also informed the CM they purchased power by paying Rs 36.5 crore per day on an average in March and 34.08 crore in April to avoid any trouble to the power consumers. “We purchased 1,268.69mu of power at Rs 1,123.74 crore in March and 1,047.78mu of power at Rs 1,022.42 crore in April.”
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