VIJAYAWADA: Energy Minister Gottipati Ravi Kumar has announced that, from November 2025, electricity tariffs will be reduced by 13 paise per unit, fulfilling the coalition government’s pre-election promise to ease the financial burden on consumers.
Addressing the media at his camp office in Amaravati on Sunday, the minister criticised the previous YSRCP government for imposing heavy electricity charges and mismanaging the power sector, while crediting Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s expertise for driving reforms that enable this tariff reduction. He assured further efforts to minimize consumer costs in the coming days.
The minister accused the YSRCP government, led by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, of hiking electricity charges nine times during its five-year tenure, treating the power sector as a revenue source and burdening citizens with over Rs 18,000 crore in additional costs. This included Rs 3,000 crore in 2021-22, Rs 6,073 crore in 2022-23, and a provisional Rs 9,300 crore in 2023-24, alongside an extra 40 paise per unit.
The YSRCP’s policies, he said, led to a Rs 1.25 lakh crore debt for the power sector, crippled infrastructure, and cancelled power purchase agreements (PPAs) out of vindictiveness, resulting in Rs 9,000 crore in penalties paid to companies for unused power.
The previous regime also failed to leverage central government subsidies or local generation capacity at plants like VTPS and Krishnapatnam, instead purchasing costly power from other states like Rajasthan, he added.
Ravi Kumar highlighted the coalition government’s achievements under Naidu’s leadership. When the TDP left office in 2019, Andhra Pradesh was a power-surplus state, producing 7,000-9,000 MW of renewable energy.
The current administration has reduced short-term power purchases from 17% to 6.8%, adopting a swapping mechanism with states like Rajasthan and Haryana to procure power only when needed.
According to him, efforts are underway to boost local generation, with VTPS now operating at 70% capacity and plans to reach 90%, alongside reviving plants in Krishnapatnam and Kadapa. The government is also constructing 400 kV, 200 kV, and 33/11 kV substations to meet the state’s 6-8% annual rise in power demand.
Under the PM Suryaghar scheme, the state aims to install 20 lakh solar rooftops, with free installations for SC/ST communities and a Rs 20,000 subsidy for BCs beyond central incentives. The PM Kusum scheme ensures nine hours of quality daytime power through 12 kV lines.
Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are being prioritised to store daytime solar and wind power for peak nighttime use, with tenders already finalized, including for Pumped Storage Projects (PSPs) in Prakasam district.