Though the State has a potential of tapping around 1,500 MW geothermal power in the state, proposals have been pending for a long time due to various reasons.
The country’s first geothermal power plant is supposed to come up in Khammam district by 2012.
A Mumbai-based company, Geosyndicate Power Pvt Ltd, entered into an agreement with the power utility in 2010 but the project could not take off due to tariff dispute.
According to sources in the New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of AP (NEDCAP), the tariff case was pending with the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC).
Geosyndicate wanted Rs 9 per unit and the APERC is yet to fix the tariff.
Like solar, wind and hydro power, geothermal power is being neglected in the state.
Geothermal energy is an important new renewable energy source and is derived from the natural heat of the earth. It can be used as heat energy for various end uses, including electricity generation.
Geosyndicate, a company incubated in the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay has taken up the preliminary studies and submitted a technoeconomic feasibility report to harness geothermal energy in the state.
As per the report, the estimated potential for generation of geothermal power is 1,500 MW in the south-east of Hyderabad and the Godavari Basin.
Geosyndicate was given permission to establish a geothermal power project of 25 MW capacity near Aswaraopet in Khammam district. After the company entered into an agreement, six more companies evinced interest in tapping the new renewable energy and submitted proposals to set up 135 MW capacity plants in Khammam district.
But due to delay in tariff fixation, geothermal power could not be tapped in the state. Now Tatas are going to tap geothermal power in Maharashtra, officials said. It means that the state will not be, in all likelihood, the first in the country to set up a geothermal power plant and the credit may go to Maharashtra.
According to Nedcap officials, around 50 MW of geothermal power can be generated at Bugga, 60 MW at Bhadrachalam, 20 MW at Burgampahad and 25 MW at Aswaraopet. The state is estimated to have a potential to produce around 1,500 MW of geothermal power.
Sources said geothermal power could also be tapped in the Gopalapuram-Chintalapudi section in West Godavari district.