VIJAYAWADA: The APERC has sought a justification report from the state discoms for procuring energy from exchanges (power trading platforms) even though per-unit variable costs of the thermal units, which are kept in reserve shutdown citing high prices, were lesser than the per-unit rates of energy procured from exchanges in December and January.
The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission also noted that the quantum of procurements from power exchanges were ‘huge’, to the tune of 15 to 20 per cent of the state’s per-day requirement. In a letter written to APSPDCL, APCPDCL and APEPDCL on Tuesday, the in-charge commission secretary C Ramakrishna noted that the maximum (marginal) per unit variable cost of the last dispatched thermal power plant, as indicated in the approved merit order despatch table in the RST order for the FY 2020-21, is Rs 3.98.
However, the commission noticed that the landed per unit cost of energy has been gradually increasing and was in the range of Rs 3.27 to Rs 4.07 in December, 2020, and first half of January, 2021, except on two days in the period between December 17 and January 15. “The quantum of purchases is also huge ranging from 30 million units to 40 million units per day in the majority of days during the said period constituting about 15 per cent to 20 percent of each day energy requirement in the state,” the letter read.
“...it is observed that the per-unit rates of energy from the exchanges in the said period were more than the per-unit variable costs of many of the approved thermal stations... Therefore, you are hereby directed to furnish within one week a detailed report justifying the power purchases made from the exchanges including the details of the dispatches from the approved sources vis-a-vis their declared capacities during the said period, the savings achieved in overall power purchase costs...” the letter read.
Power employees to stage protest today
The AP State Power Employees JAC will take up lunch-hour demonstrations on Wednesday across the state as a token of resentment against the privatisation policies and introduction of Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The JAC said the demonstrations were part of the country-wide protest call given by National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers