VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh, which is in the forefront of harnessing renewable power and has also promulgated policies to attract green energy investments, has added about 439.45 megawatts (MW) of clean energy generation to its capacity in the 2020-21 financial year.
The government has set a target to facilitate 120 giga watt (GW) renewable energy projects in the next five years under the AP Renewable Energy Export Policy, and is in talks with various players for facilitating the establishment of about 17GW to 18 GW projects in the first phase.
According to the New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation (NREDCAP) Ltd’s status report on renewable power projects commissioned in the last financial year, 435.25 MW capacity solar plants and 4.2 GW wind plants were commissioned in 2020-21. With the latest addition, AP’s cumulative renewable capacity reached 8,646.71 MW with wind energy accounting for 4,083.57 MW and solar for 3,970.74 MW. Most of the new capacity has been commissioned in the second half of the fiscal. Small hydro, biomass-based, and other categories saw no new capacity addition this year.
The officials said that the capacity addition will shoot up significantly in the next two years as more green energy projects were in the pipeline including the 10,000 MW solar plants for free agricultural power scheme, small hydro plants, pumped storage hydro plants, and others under the export policy.
Meanwhile, the state government has asked power utilities to lay more focus on strengthening safe, reliable and cheap electricity supply to consumers and to become “most consumer- centric utilities” in the country. While the government has already made efforts to strengthen 24x7 power supply to domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, it also wants to transform the entire sector as per the aspiration of consumers to fulfill future needs.
The government has also accorded high priority to Dr YSR nine-hour free power supply to agriculture during day time under Navaratnalu to ensure that farmers shall get free power for the next 30 years. The officials said that the government has agreed to bear a burden of Rs 9,091.36 crore for 2021-22 as subsidy for providing free power to agriculture consumers and some other weaker sections and subsidy for domestic consumers as well.
“The free power scheme will improve living standards of farmers, agricultural productivity and give a boost to the rural economy. Also, though we are very much satisfied about the qualitative 24X7 power supply, we must put all out efforts to be the best State in the country in uninterrupted and qualitative power by the next Ugadi festival (April, 2022),” said Energy Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy.
Energy Secretary Srikant Nagulapalli said that the power utilities were taking necessary steps to supply uninterrupted power during summer as the demand for electricity is steadily increasing. “The power utilities have already taken up network improvement works to meet the consumer satisfaction by supplying quality power and utilities will also strive hard to reach the expectation of the State government,” he said.
8,646.71 MW: AP’s cumulative renewable energy capacity
4,083.57 MW: Wind energy
3,970.74 MW: Solar power
435.25 MW capacity solar plants and 4.2 GW wind plants were commissioned in 2020-21