Power deficit in Andhra temporary, says Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy

Vijayawada/Visakhapatnam: Minister for Energy, Environment, Forests, Mines, Science & Technology Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy on Thursday said the power deficit arising in the State is only a temporary phenomenon and appealed to the consumers to understand the situation and co-operate with the DISCOMs.

Officials said the total demand met is 208 MU out of which 71 MU is met from thermal power plants of AP Genco, 40 MU from central power generating stations, 6.6 MU from hydel, 24 MU from solar, 16 MU from wind energy sources, 9.4 MU from Hinduja National Power Corporation, 11 MU from Independent power producers and other power exchanges.

During a review meeting, the Minister asked the utilities to ensure best services to the consumers within the available resources of power and said that the YSRCP Government led by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has never compromised in protecting the interests of the consumers as he gives high priority to the power sector identifying it as a key source of economic growth.

The Minster specifically directed the power utilities/DISCOMS to continue to fully focus on domestic and agriculture sectors and prepare an action plan exclusively for agriculture to provide nine hours day-time free power supply from May 1.

In view of a high level meeting with Energy Department/power utilities likely on April 18, the Energy Minister held a brief teleconference to finalise the agenda such as challenges of power sector in meeting the demand in view of coal crisis prevailing in the country, infrastructure development, release of agricultural connections and bringing power supply to normalcy from May 1. "Even at this time when the demand for electricity has increased across the country with limited availability of power to buy at the power exchanges, the utilities are providing quality power to domestic consumers and seven hours day time free power to agriculture," Ramachandra Reddy said.

Stating that AP Power sector has to be both financially and physically resilient to meet the State's electricity demand in future and address the existing challenges, he said that the State Government had strongly committed to strengthen the power sector and make it more consumer-centric to deliver better services to the consumers.

The Minister said "I can say proudly that during the past 40 years of my political career, no State Government has given such a huge subsidy and support to the power sector like Jagan Mohan Reddy's Government which has given over Rs.34,000 crore in two and half years." "Still certain constraints with regard to coal transportation issues, arrangement of coal rakes, seasonal conditions and price variation in the market are few constraints that are affecting 24X7 power supply. Also, the Russia-Ukraine war has led to operational issues of coal production and high prices of coal," he said. The Minister said the government is committed to provide reliable power supply to consumers and free power to the agriculture sector during day time. At the same time, the government is always ready to support the power sector which is in a huge financial crisis.

He said the implementation of Navaratnalu in the power sector is a top priority of the government. Millions of families are benefiting from these schemes. The scheme of providing free electricity to agriculture is one of the most crucial schemes in Navaratnalu. The Minister directed utilities to ensure that not even an acre should get affected due to the shortage of power supply.

Energy Secretary B Sreedhar, JMD APTransco I Prudhvi Tej, CMDs of DISCOMs H Haranatha Rao, J Padma Janardhana Reddy, K Santhosha Rao and Director-Grid/APTransco AVK Bhaskar and others attended the telecon.