Power shortage in Andhra; power bought at high prices from private companies

Hyderabad: While the state’s power department has brought down production from its own power plants, APGenco, it is purchasing power from private companies at a much higher price. Stating a fall in demand for power in the state in the last few days due to rain and cool weather conditions, power production in state-owned APGenco’s thermal plants was reduced to 10 MU per day. On the other hand, power cuts are still being experienced in the state. Over 30-40 MU of power cuts are being imposed.

Power is purchased from private companies at Rs 7 per unit, while the power from APGenco costs Rs 4 per unit. In the last four days, power production has decreased on an average of 10 MU per day, March 3: 7.7 MU, March 4: 11.06 MU, March 5: 8.42 MU and March 6: 9 MU. Also, the Kadapa Rayalaseema thermal plant was shut for two days.

Admitting that the power production has been reduced, K. Vijayanand, managing director of APGenco said, “Yes, we have backed down the power production. But, we have done it only on the directions of grid authorities,”

This move of the authorities has put the department at a loss of Rs 5.4 crore in just three days. If the government does not buy power from private players, it has to pay Rs 1 per unit towards penalty as per the agreement. However, it is still cheaper to buy from public power units as it costs Rs 4 per unit. Given the demand of power in the last four days, the total power requirement is around 260 MU. Of this over 110 MU is produced at APGenco plants (both hydel and thermal), 40 MU comes from central thermal power plants and the rest is purchased from private companies.