VIJAYAWADA: The Energy department has claimed that State discoms saved about `500 crore in the last six months by purchasing only cost-effective power in open market. Officials expect that the savings will improve as they are exploring more options to procure power at lower rates.According to a statement from the department on Friday, a review meeting was held to assess the progress made by power utilities in the last six months since the change of guard and the outcome of the government’s efforts to bailout the debt-ridden power utilities.
The discoms stopped purchasing high cost power after instructions from the government. “As a result, the utilities were able to purchase power at `3.38 per unit on an average in October, 2019, as against `6.56 per unit for the same period in 2018. The average power purchase costs of discoms between April and October this year remained at `4.8 per unit,” the statement said.
“For the first time in the recent past, the power utilities were able to save around `500 crore by purchasing only cost-effective power in open market,” it added. “The utilities had purchased power from companies in the previous years at higher prices than that was offered in open market. Besides, the cost of purchase of electricity was higher than the revenue generated from operations of AP discoms.
The APSPDCL had purchased power to the tune of `19,139 crore in 2018-19 against its revenue of `14,956 crore. The same had happened between 2015 and 2017, which had put the discoms in a near bankrupt situation,” the officials revealed. The government has also taken major steps to protect the power utilities from the financial distress by giving consent to issue government guarantee to discoms for `11,316.46 crore towards swapping the high cost borrowings of bank loans instead of bonds.
“Along with ensuring cost-effective power supply, we are also committed to supply nine-hour free power for agricultural use. The Chief Minister is also keen on implementing the scheme,” Energy Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy said.
He appreciated Energy secretary Srikant Nagulapalli, APGENCO MD B Sreedhar, APTRANSCO JMD KVN Chakradhara Babu, Chairpersons and Managing Directors (CMDs) of DISCOMS Naga Lakshmi Selvarajan and H Haranatha Rao for working in coordination to bail out the beleaguered power sector.