NELLORE: After becoming power surplus State, Andhra Pradesh is all set to achieve another feat of completing 100 per cent household electrification. Thus, AP will be second only to Gujarat to provide power connection to every household in the State, by coming April.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday announced that AP would accomplish 100 per cent household electrification task by April.
“After achieving top position in the country in implementing energy efficiency programmes, we are going to achieve another task. In two months time, no household in our State will remain without a power connection,” Naidu said.
Disclosing this after dedicating the 1,600 MW Sri Damodaram Sanjeeviah Thermal Power Station (SDSTPS), located at Krishnapatnam in Nellore district, to the nation, Naidu said his government would provide power connection to every house in the State by April.
“There will be no house left in the State which doesn’t have electricity connection. Currently, about 5.80 lakh houses don’t have a power connection. We would see that they too get power connection by April,” he stated.
Further saying that his government has been working to bring down energy losses to single digit, Naidu said soon the government would undertake smart metering project in 1 crore households out of the total 1.3 crore households to bring down power thefts.
“These meters will help in monitoring power consumption on real time basis. We can check power consumption sitting at office and take action against the people involved in power thefts. one per cent power saving results into Rs 200 crore savings and 5 per cent could save Rs 1000 crore. Discoms in our State are losing about 14,000 crore per annum due to power loss and thefts. If we can reduce power loss, we can save huge money,” he said.
According to Naidu, successful implementation of energy efficiency measures had helped the State in saving energy to a larger extent. By the use of LED bulbs, about Rs 40,000 crore could be saved per annum, he added.
Coming to the development of Nellore district, Naidu said with the development of Krishnapatnam industrial city and the proposed new airport in the district and its proximity to Chennai, the district will be developed into a ‘tri industrial corridor’. “Once these facilities come, the district will be developed rapidly,” he said.
Naidu said he would look into the demand of the local people to set up mini fishing harbour in Nellore. Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology YS Chowdary, State ministers P Narayana, Sidda Raghava Rao and others were present on the occasion.
Govt to Ensure Quality Power Supply
After joining the club of ‘24X7 power availability’ States, the AP government is now trying to provide uninterrupted quality power to consumers by bringing down the power disturbances. Disclosing this to media here, energy secretary Ajay Jain said currently power disturbance’s time duration in the State is between 1,100 to 1,400 minutes per annum, whereas the world average is just 100 minutes per annum. Similarly, the power interruption average of the State is 40 times per annum, whereas the world average is 5 times in a year. “We are working on measures to bring down the average of both power disturbance time duration and interruption duration to global standards,” he said. He remarked that after making the State power surplus the government is now concentrating on bringing down power tariff and make power accessible to all.