Srisailam to produce 715 MU power

Amaravati: The energy department is planning to generate 715 MU (million units) of power this year from Srisailam dam which could be the highest in recent years.

The hydel power generation could also be started from Nagarjunasagar also soon. They hydel power, which is available at Rs 1.6 per unit, will be useful to discoms (power distribution companies) in reducing costs.

The officials of the energy department conducted a review meeting on Sunday on the hydropower generation possibilities in view of good inflows into reservoirs in Andhra Pradesh.

Minister for energy Balineni Srinivasa Reddy held a teleconference with energy department officials over the impact of massive inflows into Srisailam project.

He asked them to take steps for the generation of hydropower at cost-effective rates and maintain quality of power supply to the consumers.

In view of the massive inflows to Srisailam, secretary for energy department Srikant Nagulapalli emphasised the need for preparing a revised action plan to meet the peak demand in kharif season.

The overall power demand was recorded as 162 MU on Sunday as against the demand of 148 MU during the first week of August, he said.

APGenco managing director B Sreedhar informed the minister that the Srisailam right bank power plant can generate 165 million units for the next 10 days at the rate of 16.5 MU per day given the inflows into the reservoir.

If the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) allocates 100 tmc ft to AP, the Genco would generate around 550 MU of hydel power.

With this, the total hydel power generation from Srisailam can possibly aggregate to 715 MU at a cost of Rs 114.4 crore only (Rs 1.6 per unit) whereas the generation cost of thermal power for the same quantity will be Rs 329 crore at Rs 4.6 per unit. The expected to save with hydropower will be around Rs 215 crore.

The Nagarjunasagar tail-pond powerplant with a capacity of 50 megawatt has already started to generate 1 MU a day.

In addition, APGenco is expected to generate 3 MU per day through Nagarjunasagar right canal powerhouse (90 mw capacity) within a few days taking the total to 28 MU per day for some days, he said. Several officials were also present in the teleconference.