Vijayawada: Power utilities in Andhra Pradesh have been considering metering agriculture consumption. According to an official press release from the AP state government, the Centre has asked all distribution companies to arrange metering system to measure supply of energy from distribution transformers dedicated to the agriculture sector.
A. Chandrasekhar Reddy, CEO, State Energy Conservation Mission, in an apparent attempt to defend the move to install power meters for agrarians, said in the press release issued by him on Sunday, referred to different farmers associations constantly representing to the government to measure actual agriculture consumption in the state.
Significantly, the release acknowledged that Discoms avail subsidy for commercial losses in the name of agriculture consumption, while farmers have been demanding real-time data to prevent it. The proposed new system would help to measure agriculture consumption accurately and energy audit efficiently, the release further pointed out.
The release further said that energy officials briefed Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, energy minister, about various initiatives, including putting in place a system to avoid interruptions in supply and resolve problem of overload of distribution transformers.
The officials also briefed the AP state minister about the losses of power utilities mounting to Rs 33,419 crore in December 2019 from the Rs 7,069 crore as on March, 2014. The operational and capital expenditure of utilities also increased manifold during the same period, the release said.
