The senior executives of Telangana power utilities have alleged that their Andhra Pradesh counterparts were not coming forward to resolve the outstanding issues including swapping of employees and settlement of dues.
Stating that dealing with such issues was a continuous process, Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Transco and TS-Genco D. Prabhakar Rao said on Monday that there was no loss (impact) due to stoppage of power-sharing by AP utilities following a dispute over the settlement of dues. “We are ready for talks any time but they are not coming forward”, Mr. Rao said speaking to reporters along with CMDs of the two discoms of Telangana.
The AP utilities were holding back the ₹ 1,600 crore dues towards Telangana citing auditing reasons, even as Telangana utilities were servicing the loans taken for Kurnool and Anantapur districts, which were part of the Central Power Distribution Company Ltd in unified AP, besides paying pension to retired staff and servicing non-project common loans, Mr. Prabhakar Rao said.
“We are ready to pay any amount due to AP provided the dues from their side are settled” he added.
On power purchases, the CMD said, they were procuring about 20 Million Units (MU) energy per day from the exchange only during the peak hours at an average cost of ₹ 3.20 per unit. The utilities had also requested the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) to review the power purchase agreement with NTECL, a subsidiary of NTPC in Tamil Nadu, for supply of 109 MW since the cost of ₹ 6,80 per unit was very high. “We want to explore possibilities of exiting the PPA”, he said.
Asked about the cost of 1,000 MW Chhttisgarh power, Mr. Prabhakar Rao said the tariff was yet to be decided by the ERC of that State and the Telangana utilities would make all efforts to keep the supply cost low.
