Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has made a strong pitch for allocation of additional coal and gas from the KG basin to help the State overcome the ongoing acute power crisis.
The Chief Minister called on Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M. Veerappa Moily, Minister of State Jyotiraditya Scindia and Defence Minister A.K. Antony who is heading the Empowered Group of Ministers on gas allocation and pricing on Thursday. The EGoM was scheduled to meet on May 7, but the meeting could not take place.
During his interaction, he urged Mr. Antony to convene the meeting of the EGoM at the earliest so that a decision could be taken before the month-end. He appealed to Mr. Moily to ensure allocation of gas to the State so that a majority of the gas-based power plants that were now lying idle could start generation of power.
In addition, the Centre should allocate additional coal to the NTPC power plants in the State enabling them to generate 500 MW of additional power. The Chief Minister explained about the unprecedented power crisis gripping the State to Mr. Scindia and asked him to ensure completion of work on linking the southern grid with the national grid as it was a long term solution to tackle power shortages.
Mr. Scindia is learnt to have told Mr. Kiran Reddy that the issue of allocation of additional coal to Andhra Pradesh as also gas allocation to the States was under examination by the EGoM. A decision could be taken once the EGoM gave its consent.
The State was already allocated 395 MW additional power from the Central grid and linking of the southern grid with the national grid would be completed by next year.
