The government will be discussing the modalities of supplying free power for nine hours during day time to the agriculture sector at a high-level meeting on June 18 as per instructions of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Minister for Energy Balineni Srinivas Reddy has issued orders to the officials of the Energy Department that priority be given to reducing power tariff to ₹1.50 to aquaculture farmers and providing free power to SC, ST colonies up to 200 units.
In a teleconference on Sunday, Mr. Srinivas Reddy told the officials that the Chief Minister was committed to implementing the free power scheme to the farm sector and curbing crop losses caused by interruptions in supply to the borewells.
The Minister will review the power sector performance in Tuesday’s meeting and submit a detailed report to the Chief Minister.
Secretary (energy) and AP-Transco CMD N. Srikant told the Minister that out of 6,663 11 kV agricultural feeders in the rural areas, only 1,712 (26%) required additional infrastructure to commence the nine-hour power supply during day time.
Cost factor
Installation of 16 extra high tension sub-stations, 32 capacitor banks, 52 power transformers and laying of 112-km extra high voltage lines, costing around ₹1,700 crore, were needed to give the nine-hour supply, he said.
The Minister said the government was prepared to incur any amount of additional expenditure for the sake of the farmers’ welfare. Mr. Srinivas Reddy also said he would take the pending release of loan of ₹3,700 crore from the World Bank under the ‘Power for All’ scheme to the Chief Minister’s notice.AP-Genco CMD B. Sreedhar said steps for optimising the generation capacity were taken in view of the steep rise in demand. He said the installed capacity stood at 5,213 MW.
‘Will review PPAs’
Special Correspondent in Ongole writes: Addressing the media here, Mr. Srinivas Reddy said the government would reopen the “inflated” power purchase agreements entered with independent power producers during the previous TDP rule.
“The revisiting of the high-cost PPAs is imperative to ensure power supply at a cheaper rate to consumers,” he said. His assertion came in the wake of the New and Renewable Energy Secretary fearing flight of industries if the PPAs were reviewed.
The Chief Minister raised the issue with the Prime Minister and the latter had given the green signal, he said.
