VIJAYAWADA: Power utilities in the State have been striving to meet the increasing demand in the State. According to energy department officials, the power sector in the State has been pushed into following irrigational division of power production and distribution system between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. With more than Rs 700-cr dues pending with Telangana power utilities, the energy department has been striving to ensure quality power round-the-clock to all sectors in the last four years.
Senior officials of the department maintained that no power cuts were happening anywhere in the State. Moreover, the authorities are on alert to ensure that the supply situation is under control. The government has allowed power utilities to procure and supply electricity as per requirement from the open short-term competitive market at any cost up to Rs 10/unit.
Further, various measures are being taken to reduce power purchase cost. Returning of 625 MW of high cost thermal power capacity allocated from around 20 Central Power Stations in various regions to the Centre to reduce power purchase costs in the long term has resulted in an annual savings of around Rs 625 crore in fixed charges.
The power utilities have joined the late payment surcharge-scheme of Ministry of Power to settle all dues of the power generation companies with low interest loan. It reduced the burden on utilities from the high late payment surcharge levied by the manufacturing companies.
As much as 7,000 MW of solar power will be procured from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) at Rs 2.49/ unit for the long-term implementation of the nine-hour free electricity scheme for farmers. The solar power procurement cost from SECI i.e Rs 2. 64/unit is cheaper when compared to the average power procurement cost for the year 2022-23, which is around Rs 5.13/unit.