VIJAYAWADA: The State government has sanctioned Rs 250 crore emergency fund for the APGenco to procure coal on a priority basis to tide over the energy crisis. Apart from this, the Union Ministry of Power has been asked to allocate 400 MW to the State from unallocated power from CGS till June, 2022.
On measures taken by it to ensure that there are no power cuts, the State government on Saturday said, “Discussions with collieries have been going on for the supply of coal without limiting it due to pending dues as per Central guidelines. We are also trying to talk to the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) in Telangana to improve coal reserves at our thermal plants.”
Amid rumours that there would be load relief measures starting Saturday in view of the coal crisis, power utilities have “assured” that there won’t be any power cuts in the State. The statement further said that eight additional coal rakes were allotted to Andhra Pradesh thermal power plants. APGenco MD B Sreedhar informed that there was considerable improvement in coal stocks at thermal plants. The power utilities were also directed to procure power from markets at any price to meet the demand.
According to another press release issued by the Energy Department, the power purchase price in the open market dropped to Rs 6.11 per unit on Saturday from Rs 20 on Friday. The energy officials claimed that the energy deficit in AP in the past five days was to the tune of around 1.22 million units (MU), lower than that in States like Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
“There were no power cuts in AP on October 15 as utilities were able to meet the total demand without any load shedding. Out of the average daily energy demand for 185 MU, the State has maintained a power deficit less than 1 MU per day on an average for the past 16 days despite the coal shortage. The total power deficit was 10 MU only for the same period. Because of this, the power interruptions/load relief were negligible,” Energy Secretary Srikant Nagulapalli claimed.
Meanwhile, efforts are also being made to bring into operation the two new thermal units at NTTPS and Krishnapatnam and make 1,600 MW available to the State. In a review meet, the officials informed the Energy Secretary that the Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant in Kadapa and Sri Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Station, Krishnapatnam, started power generation of 800 MW each on October 15.
“There were very minimal power interruptions for load relief purpose a few days ago because of coal shortage. But the power utilities have taken steps to improve coal reserves and the power deficit was less than 1 MU per day for the last two weeks. In view of this, there is no question of power cut now in the State,” it maintained.