Stating that the State government was committed to provide quality, quantity and reliable power to all the category of consumers in the State, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday informed the Assembly that his government, along with two power distribution companies signed an MoU with the Union Government at New Delhi to join the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) Scheme to tide over power crisis. He also said his government had initiated several measures in this regard.
Making a statement in House, the Chief Minister said when the TRS government took over on June 2, 2014, the State was reeling under frequent power-cuts with a shortage of 2700 MW peak demand, four to eight hour load relief to the domestic and other customers and a two-day power holidays to the industries. The two Discoms were having a long-term debt of Rs 11,897 crore (TSSPDCL – Rs 7,392 crore and TSNPDCL Rs 4,505 crore) as on September 30, 2015 and virtually in the debt trap.
The Chief Minister said due to the neglect of Telangana region in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh government, there was neither proper planning nor forecast of the demand. There were several agitations over irregular power supply, especially to the farming sector, he said. He also recalled there was even police firing in Basheerbagh on August 28, 2000 resulting in the death of two farmers, who were agitating against irregular power supply and increased power tariff.
At the time of inception of the State, the installed capacity of the State was 5863 MW. The State government had initiated short, medium and long-term measures to overcome the chronic power problem. The power utilities took a number of measures like reduction of T&D losses from 16.83% to 15.98%; Staggering of loads to 24 hours of the day; increase in generation by TSGENCO plants; entering into short-term power purchase agreements and purchase from exchange, he added.
The Chief Minister said 600MW Kakatiya Thermal Power Plant, 1200 MW Singareni Thermal Power Plant, 840 MW of Thermal Power Tech, 550 MW of CGS, 240 MW Jurala Hydro Power Project, 30 MW of Pulichintala HES, 1080 MW of Solar Power and 99 MW Wind Power totaling 5039 MW was connected to the grid, he said, adding that the State has met the peak power demand of 8284 MW on September 9, 2016 with short-term power purchases. The two-day power holiday imposed earlier on industrial consumers are lifted and 24-hour power supply was ensured to the industries. With the reliable power supply sale of inverters, converters and diesel generators are minimized, the Chief Minister said.
Towards making the State power-surplus, the State will be getting 1000 MW from Chattigarah from April, 2017 and the TSGENCO also putting up 5880 MW thermal capacity with an investment of Rs 37,600 crore for which the financial closure was achieved, the Chief Minister said. Besides, the NTPC will be setting up a 4000 MW Thermal Power Plant at Ramagundam as mandated in the A.P. Re-organization Act for which Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for 2×800 MW Thermal Power Plant in Phase-I and the work was under progress, he added. He also disclosed that CGS will be adding 595 MW in the next three years. Singareni will be setting up 800 MW Supercritical Thermal Power Station. Further, around 3920 MW of Solar Power would be commissioned by 2018-19, he added.
With all these additions, the total installed capacity of the State will be about 27187 MW, he said, adding that Transmission and Distribution network was also strengthened with an investment of Rs 2,500 crore, the Chief Minister said.
To relieve the financial burden of the Distribution Companies and consumers, the State has decided to join the UDAY Scheme (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) launched by the Government of India. In recognition of the efforts put in by all sections of the employees, the government has decided to regularize services of some 20,000 outsourced personnel working in TRANSCO, GENCO and Distribution Companies and also regularized the services of 1175 contract JLMs, the Chief Minister declared. (NSS)