VIJAYAWADA: The State government has urged the Centre to extend financial aid to the beleaguered power sector of Andhra Pradesh that is struggling due to the ‘severe financial crisis’ with a sharp reduction in power consumption, almost 40 per cent dip in revenue and increasing burden of paying fixed charges to power generators — even as the same has been waived off for a few industries — due to the Covid-imposed lockdown.
In this context, the energy department said that the Centre nominated joint secretary of Union Ministry of Power Aniruddha Kumar to coordinate with the State to provide assistance during the lockdown.
The department on Sunday pegged the estimated loss due to fall in revenues at Rs 2,500 crore for the months of April, May and June, the first quarter of FY 2020-21, because of an estimated reduction in power consumption by 3,200 megawatts (MW).
Besides this, the department of industries has announced to completely waive off minimum power charges of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) for the first quarter of the fiscal.
The waiver is expected to burden the state exchequer by Rs 188 crore. "We are requesting the Union Ministry of Power to provide relief to utilities to bridge a huge revenue gap that has arisen due to the lockdown. We are optimistic that the Centre will come to our rescue," said Energy Secretary Nagulapalli Srikant.
While the State sought Rs 2,000 crore assistance from the Union ministry, it is learnt that the Centre has asked provision of government guarantee for the same.
On the other hand, the issue of paying fixed charges to power generators despite a 70 per cent drop in industry and commercial electricity consumption and dramatic collapse in revenue collections due to this unprecedented crisis needs resolution.
According to officials, the Discoms have to pay Rs 7,500 crore per annum to generating stations and Rs 1,450 crore to Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) towards fixed cost every year. DISCOMs receive Rs 6,500 crore by way of minimum demand charges (fixed costs) annually from the consumers.
"This has become a major blow to discoms," a senior official said. In fact, the revenue collections of power discoms dropped by 28.64 per cent in March and the total sales of power fell to 4,500 million units in the same month from the expected range of 5,000 MU to 5,500 MU. In April too, the revenue collections dipped by 48.59 per cent.
"Of the Rs 4,315.36 crore demand, we realised only Rs 2,648.97 crore. There has also been a sharp increase in online payments. Almost 73 per cent of the collections received are from digital transactions," said joint managing director of APTRANSCO KVN Chakradhar Babu, who monitored the collections from AP Power Coordination Committee (APPCC).
The power sector is in a critical position with Rs 33,209 crore payables as on March 31, 2020, of which outstanding working capital loans payable by Discoms are Rs 17,087 cr and Rs 16,122 cr are power purchase dues.