The power cuts imposed on all categories of consumers is in line with the directives of the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission which includes concessions or exemptions for particular industries or sectors, Director (Operations & HRD) of AP EPDCL H.Y. Dora said.
Industry associations can approach the APERC to get specific exemptions, he said at a meeting organised on power crisis in the State.
The power demand-supply gap was high in the area due to astronomical increase in the demand for power in the region, he added.
The present power crisis was the worst in decades and the officials could not say by when it would end, Mr. Dora said. Earlier, Minister for Investment, Infrastructure, Ports and Natural Gas Ganta Srinivas Rao promised to take up the issues highlighted by the industry representatives at the meeting with the Government.
Power project
There are power projects in various stages of completion and proposals for non-conventional energy like solar power were with the Government, when completed they would add 70,000 MW of power generation in the State, the Minister said.
Representatives of paper recycling industry spoke on the necessity of continuous power supply and urged the officials to declare their industry as a continuous process industry.
Director of EPDCL directed them to submit a representation to the APERC and get exemption for their industry.
Reacting to the appeal by industry representatives to the banks to reschedule the loan repayment, Deputy General Manager of Andhra Bank B. Bhaskar Sharma said that while they appreciated the present crisis in the industry due to power shortage, the banks had to strictly follow RBI directives on repayment.
Any loan instalment that was due for over 90 days was to be declared a non-performing asset, however the banks were willing to wait 180 days for repayment, he explained. The borrowers could ask for rescheduling of loan only once, he added.
The banks would be willing to advance a loan for setting up of captive power plants by a group of industrialists, Andhra Bank DGM said.
Power saving machinery
The Small Industries Development Bank of India has drawn up a list of power saving machinery for use by the industry and is willing to give interest subsidy to units purchasing these, SIDBI Assistant General Manager Kameswar Rao said.
The meet organised by the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Industries (FAPI) failed to get the members of Parliament from Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East and West Godavari districts to attend the State-level convention on ‘power crisis in Andhra Pradesh for solution and suggestions.
Officials of AP Eastern Power Distribution Company Ltd, General Manager of the District Industries Centre V.R. Vijaya Raghava Naik, AGM of AP State Financial Corporation K. Hari Babu, office-bearers of FAPI B.V. Rama Rao, N. Venkata Reddi and S. Ramanujam and a number of representatives of industry from the region attended the meet.
