With the State continuing to face huge gap in demand and supply of power, it is ready to buy power at a higher cost as and when necessary in the next two months for saving standing crops.
Against the generation of 227 million units per day, the demand at present peaked to 290 mu now.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy told the Legislative Council on Saturday that the Government has decided to procure Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) and supply the same to gas-based power stations.
This would help in generation of additional 10 to 20 million units of power a day and the Finance Department has been asked to earmark Rs.300 crore for the purpose.
Replying to a short discussion on power situation, Mr. Reddy said deficit in hydel power due to poor rains in catchment areas and decline in gas production resulted in a shortage of 65 mu a day. Detailing the proposals to boost power generation in the next one year, he said a permanent RLNG centre and a floating terminal in the East Coast would be ready by December 2013 to supply gas at a lower cost for the gas-based power projects in the State.
A new policy to ensure generation of 2,000 MW of wind and solar power in one year and 5,000 MW by 2017 would be announced in a day or two. The government was also targeting for generation of additional 7,000 MW of power through Genco projects by 2014, he said. On Hinduja’s thermal plant at Visakhapatnam, Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy said, the energy department officials were engaged in discussions with the company representatives.
“We are insisting that 100 per cent power generated by their thermal plant is supplied to the State,” he said responding to a query from Leader of Opposition Dadi Veerabhadra Rao.
The State had allocated land and extended other concessions for the Hinduja power plant two decades ago.
Thermal power
Earlier the Information Technology Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah, said though thermal power generation compared to last year had increased, fall in hydel power and gas production in KG basin led to the power shortage. The State was purchasing 35 mu a day from all available sources as against 15 mu last year.
