A.P. an energy-secure State, says Ajay Jain

‘It is in the forefront in renewable energy generation’

Meeting of minds: Ajay Jain, Principal Secretary, Energy, A.P., releasing the theme paper of ‘Energizing South 17’, in Visakhapatnam on Friday. Amit Kumar of PwC, S. Chandrasekhar, conference chairman, J.S.R.K Prasad, CII-AP chairman, and K. Venugopal, co-chairman of Power Sub-Committee, CII, South, are seen.

By adding as much as 5,000 MW of installed capacity since 2014, Andhra Pradesh is in the forefront in renewable energy generation in the country, Principal Secretary, Energy, Ajay Jain, has said.

Delivering the keynote address at the two-day summit, ‘Energizing South 2017,’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Friday, he said with a 1,000 MW solar park coming up in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh was leading in solar power generation.

The theme of the conference is ‘Economic growth: Smart, reliable and sustainable power’.

“With the increase in power generation, it can now safely be said that A.P. is an energy-secure State. In fact, the country as a whole is now more energy-secure than ever before,” Mr. Jain said.

However, the per capita energy consumption was still low. There were still households in many villages in the country without power connection, he observed. However, all the villages and towns in A.P. had been energised and all households in the State had power connection, he added.

Pricing

Pointing out the importance of the four ‘As’ in the power sector – availability, accessibility, affordability, and accountability – he commented that with plenty of power, the prime issue was pricing, as the State government had promised that there would not be any more increase in the tariff, he said.

On the other hand, to achieve energy efficiency, LED street lights were installed in all towns and villages, and solar pump-sets were being installed for agricultural operations though it would mean reduction in demand, Mr. Jain elaborated.

Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of AP Limited Kamalakar Babu said the Union Government had set the target of 175 GW, including 100 GW of solar power and 60 GW of wind power, by 2021-22.

Andhra Pradesh targets to generate 10,000 MW of renewable energy by 2018 and 18,000 MW by 2021-22, he said.

Chairman of the conference S. Chandrasekhar gave an overview of the power situation in the country.

Pat for A.P.

Co-chairman of the Power Sub-committee of the CII, South, K. Venugopal, said electric vehicles would rescue the power sector, creating the necessary demand. He lauded the efforts of the Andhra Pradesh Government in the renewable energy segment.

Chairman of CII, AP, J.S.R.K Prasad, and Amit Kumar of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) spoke.