Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday directed the power officials to chalk out a comprehensive action plan to overcome the power shortage in the State.
Stating that he would speak to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and other leaders at the Centre about making available gas for the idle gas-based power plants in the State, he said that non availability of gas and the growing demand and the slow onset of monsoon were slated to be the reasons for the power shortage. Reviewing the power supply and generation with the officials, he asked them to work out some concrete plans to tide over the power shortage apart from procuring additional power.
The Chief Minister wanted the department to encourage solar and wind power to ease out the situation.
Chief Secretary Minnie Mathew, Principal Secretaries Dinesh Kumar (Energy), Principal Secretary , Finance, V Bhasker, CMD, AP Transco, Hiralal Samariya, Secretary to CM, K.S. Jawahar Reddy, MD, AP Genco, K Vijayanand, MD, APMDC, M K Meena, MDs of all Discoms and other officials attended the meeting.
Officials said presently the power supply is around 212.05 MU/day with a short fall of 23.44 MU per day and 7 Hours power supply to Agriculture sector mostly in two spells is being ensured.
Small Scale Industries, Spinning mills, Rice mills, Poultry, Cold storage, Govt. hospitals, Drinking water, Traction, Seed processing, Life saving drugs and Defence Services are exempted from power cuts, they said.
The average demand during June, 2012 is 251.89 MU per day as against 218.91 MU per day during the same period last year registering an increase of 15.06 pc, the officials said.
They said the Peak demand met during June, 2012 was 10826 MW against 10108 MW during the same period last year registering an increase of 7.1 percent. The meeting also discussed about the proposed Nuclear Power Plant at Kovvada.
–Agencies