H.Y. Dora, took charge as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEPDCL) here on Friday.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Dora said priority will be given to supply of good quality and uninterrupted power to the consumer at a reasonable cost. This apart, will also lay emphasis on agriculture power supply, he said.
“Based on the Chief Minister’s assurance that power tariff will not be increased, our focus will now be on reducing the power purchase tariff.
If that can be reduced there will be no need to increase tariff for consumers. We will also focus on realising the non-tariff income like additional load and power theft to increase our income,” said Mr. Dora.
According to the new CMD of APEPDCL, the main focus area will on completing the underground cabling network. “Our target is to complete the work by 2019,” he said.
The project is being supported by World Bank with a funding of ₹ 720 crore and includes 110.22 km of 33 kv lines, 272.75 km of 11kv and 459.9 km of LT lines.
A few tenders have been finalised and the work order will be released soon, said Mr. Dora.
Talking about solar energy, he said Visakhapatnam was not suitable for large scale solar energy plants. “The city can have rooftop solar plants and we will encourage initiatives from consumers, but large scale solar plants cannot come up here. Anantapur and Kurnool are the right places,” he said.
Mr. Dora, who is a technocrat has put up over 35 years of service in the APSEB and APEPDCL combined and the employees feel that it should be an advantage for the Discom.
“Of by 35 years of service, I served as director of APEPDCL for 5 years and I know the nook and corner of the Discom. Every employee and all aspects of the network is known to me and shall use that experience for the betterment of the Discom. We shall keep the existing programmed running and at the same shall focus on improving them by bringing in cutting-edge technology,” he said.
