Chairman of the Southern Regional Power Committee (SRPC) D. Prabhakar Rao has asked the power utilities to gird themselves up to meet the energy requirements of electric vehicles which have made an entry into the public and private transport sector, in the recent past.
Speaking at the two-day convention of SRPC at Puducherry on Saturday, Mr. Prabhakar Rao, the Chairman and Managing Director of Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Ltd and Transmission Corporation of Telangana Ltd., said the electric passenger car industry was expected to make rapid strides in the country in the next few years and the power utilities were required to be ready with necessary facilities.
Stating that depleting fossil fuel reserves and increasing concerns of environmental pollution caused by such fuels had forced the automobile industry to turn to green-fuel vehicles, Mr. Prabhakar Rao also said the electric vehicles were expected to be 100% in the public sector transport and 40% in the private sector by 2030. He said there was a demand from the electric car manufacturing industry for setting up electric power charging centres, similar to petrol pumps.
He suggested the power utilities to take up the issue with the regulatory bodies concerned to treat electricity power recharging units as special category consumers and fix separate tariff for them.
Stating that grid operations in the southern States were well-received by all over the country, he said it was possible due to mutual cooperation and adherence to grid discipline. He stated that delegates from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Railways, Coal India, and Power Grid Corporation complimented the Telangana government for providing free uninterrupted power supply to the farm sector.
Member secretary of SRPC S.R. Bhatt, managing directors of power utilities from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, and the executives of Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Railways, Coal India and PGCIL attended the meeting.
