Hyderabad, March 06: The state government has ambitious plans to augment the power generation and distribution in the state to meet the demand in the next 10 years.
Replying to questions during question hour in the state legislative Assembly today, information technology minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said that the state government was planning to add around 16,000 MW of power to the present capacity and would adopt the Gujarat model of power distribution to see that all the villages would get round-the-clock power supply to households.
Lakshmaiah, on behalf of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy who also holds the energy portfolio, informed Vanga Geetha that seven-hour power supply was being provided to agricultural fields in a single spell to 4,986 feeders and in two spells to 4,163 feeders. The supply is given in three spells just to 65 feeders.
The minister said the government was planning to augment the distribution network with an investment of Rs 14,000 crore.
“We want to emulate the Gujarat model and a pilot project will be launched soon. After the evaluation of the pilot project, it will be implemented in all the villages to ensure 24-hour power supply for domestic use,” Lakshmaiah explained.
To overcome the power shortage in the next two months, the AP Discoms had placed orders for purchase of 1,000 MW of power in March and 800 MW in April.
The government was also making efforts to source regasified liquefied natural gas through the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) to enable generation of 500 MW of additional power from the existing gas-based projects to overcome power shortage during the summer.
Not satisfied with the minister’s reply, the TDP and CPM members staged a walkout from the House.
TDP’s Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu alleged that though the power companies were given land in the state they were selling their power to other states ignoring the state’s needs. D Narendra Kumar alleged that crops in various districts had withered due to nonavailability of power.
To a question from E Rajender (TRS) and others on allocation of gas to gasbased power plants, Lakshmaiah said that 13 gasbased power projects were proposed to be set up in the state and they would get 9.625 mmsmd gas to them.
Acquisition of land, water allocation, environmental clearance and financial closure were completed for the 700 MW Nedunuru gasbased power project in Karimnagar district, he said and assured that this project alone would get 9 mmsmd of gas in future.
A detailed project report was being prepared on a 1,000 MW gas-based power plant at Shankarpally in Rangareddy district, he informed the Assembly.
—Agencies