Power Finance Corporation former CMD Rajeev Sharma has appreciated the sustained efforts of the State Energy Department in procuring cost-effective power through exchanges, which benefit the consumers and saves public money.
In a communication to Energy Secretary N. Srikant, Mr. Sharma said the measures taken by the Government of Andhra Pradesh were widely acclaimed and that its initiatives were worthy of emulation by other States.
Addressing a meeting in this connection with AP-Transco Joint Managing Director K. Venkateswara Rao, CMDs of DISCOMs, H. Haranatha Rao, J. Padma Janardhana Reddy and K. Santosha Rao and AP-Transco Director (Grid & Transmission) K. Praveen Kumar and Director (Finance) K. Muthupandian on purchasing cost-effective power, on Thursday, Mr. Srikant said the utilities were able to control the electricity procurement costs by using artificial intelligence and machine learning and that purchases from the open market accounted for 80% of the overall cost of power sector.
He observed that advanced technologies were also helpful in making an accurate prediction of the demand for power.
Officials of the AP Power Coordination Committee said cost-effective power purchases in financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21 resulted in a saving of ₹2,342 crore. In the first quarter of 2021-22, ₹95 crore was saved. On an average, the power utilities saved ₹1 crore per day for three months. These savings are estimated as per the actual cost of procurement from the market and other short term sources against the weighted average variable cost of approved sources which were not available on a day-ahead basis or were substituted in lieu of cheaper market power availability.
