Power utilities in the State are bracing themselves to meet the demand during March and April to cater to the energy requirement of crucial rabi season.
They have already kept hydel stations in idle mode to conserve water for meeting farm sector’s demand that is likely to increase over the coming weeks.
“Our priority is to save water for rabi. We are not running the hydel stations as this will result in depletion of water in the reservoirs,” APTransco chairman and managing director Suresh Chanda said.
Speaking to The Hindu , he said though the trial run of linking the southern grid with northern corridor had commenced, commercial availability of power will actually be possible during July this year. “It will take more than six months for the grid to become fully operational. Nobody can book the corridor for tapping power from the northern grid till that time,” he said.
Once fully operational, the grid connectivity would help the utilities in improving the frequency of the southern corridor and enhance stabilised supply besides bringing down the prices for purchase of power significantly.
“The price will come down to around Rs.4 a unit. But the connectivity will not be of any use during the next summer at least,” he said.
Letters of intentEqual emphasis was laid on solar power and letters of intent had been given to projects capable of generating 700 MW. “We can avail this power at Rs.6.49 a unit. But these projects will take at least one-and-a-half years to start yielding results,” he said. APTransco is pinning hopes on operating gas-based generation projects with fuels like Naphtha and RLNG during the peak months while one unit (400 MW) of the Krishnapatnam project is likely to commence generation by April first week.
Situation better“We are planning to minimise cuts to industry and other sectors. Given the availability of water in the reservoirs, the situation is much better compared to previous years when power had to be purchased at high costs,” he said.
