The Andhra Pradesh Government has given approval to its power utilities to purchase hundred per cent power from the Visakhapatnam plant of the Hinduja National Power Corporation Limited.
The Government directed the utilities – Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited based at Visakhapatnam and Southern Power Distribution Company Limited based at Tirupati – to purchase the entire 1,040 MW (2X520) from the HNPCL as per the tariff approved by the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The decision, however, is set to escalate the tussle between the two Telugu-speaking States over sharing of power from the existing plants post-bifurcation. The two States are at loggerheads after the Telangana power utilities sought their due share from the Krishnapatnam and Hinduja power projects as work on the two projects was commissioned in the erstwhile united State and the Telangana utilities had made significant investments in the two projects.
The Telangana power utilities had opposed the plans of their Andhra Pradesh counterparts to procure entire power from the Hinduja plant as it was in contravention of the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act. The X schedule of the Act stipulates that existing power purchase agreements with respective distribution companies should continue for the ongoing as well as projects under construction. The Act stipulated that power generated in both the States should be shared in the ratio of 53.89 per cent and 46.11 per cent between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respectively.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had expressed his intentions to lodge a complaint with the Union Power Ministry as also take legal recourse if the neighbouring State’s Government denied Telangana its due share. Mr. Rao alleged that the Andhra Pradesh Government mounted pressure on the promoters of the Hinduja power plant to sell the entire power to his State in violation of the Reorganisation Act.
Public hearing
Meanwhile, the APERC has decided to conduct a public hearing on June 18 on the proposed power purchase agreement to be signed by the EPDCL and SPDCL with the HNPCL. The commission accordingly issued a notification calling for views, suggestions and objections from interested persons and stakeholders before June 10. This would be followed by the public hearing.
TS opposes it saying that it is in contravention of the provisions of the A.P. Reorganisation Act
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