Energy Secretary N. Srikant has said that the power utilities in the State have saved about ₹2,345 crore by purchasing cost-effective power from the markets and are now focused on strengthening the infrastructure to supply quality power to consumers.
Hoisting the national flag at the Vidyut Soudha on Sunday marking the 75th Independence Day celebrations, Mr. Srikant said efforts were under way to make power utilities more consumer-centric.
“The State has become a role model in procuring cost-effective power since 2019-20 fiscal year. Nearly ₹1,360 crore was saved by surrendering 625 MW of power to the NTPC and reducing the Central transmission utilities’ point of connection charges,” he said.
Mr. Srikant further said that the government was contemplating setting up pumped hydro storage projects in various districts with a total capacity of 33.24 gigawatts to improve the power supply scenario. The government has identified 1.45 lakh acres in Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur for ultra-mega renewable energy parks. A slew of other measures have been taken to improve the performance of the power sector, he added.
AP-Transco Joint MD K. Venkateswara Rao and Directors K. Praveen Kumar (grid and transmission) and K. Muthupandian (finance), Genco Directors G. Chandrasekhar Raju (thermal) and B. Venkatesulu Reddy (finance) took part in the celebrations.
