Hyderabad: Transco chairman and managing director D. Prabhakar Rao said the power utility was ready to supply 24x7 power to the agriculture sector from the Rabi season next year.
He said uninterrupted power would be provided from February or March, and if necessary from January itself. Mr Prabhakar Rao said there were 22 lakh agriculture pump sets and requested farmers to remove auto-starters from their pumps to save power and groundwater.
Speaking to mediapersons, Mr Prabhakar Rao said Transco was supplying uninterrupted power on a trial basis to 9.85 lakh pump sets in Medak, Nalgonda and Karimnagar districts. This had increased the power demand to 15 million units.
According to Transco estimates, power demand would go up to 11,000 MW when this measure was fully implemented. Arrangements had been made to meet this increased demand.
Mr Prabhakar Rao said in the last three years Tansco had added 5,248 MW installed capacity, taking the total to 13,095 MW in the state. He said 800 MW would be generated from the Kothagudem thermal power station from December, two units of the 4x270 MW Bhadradri thermal station would start generating power in March 2018 and the other two four months later.
Power would be available from the 5x800 MW capacity Yadadri thermal station power in three years. He said that on the directions of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Transco had spent Rs 16,000 crore to gear up the system to supply 24x7 power to the agriculture sector. Another Rs 1,600 crore would be spent to strengthen the electricity system.
On other issues, Mr Prabhakar Rao said AP had to pay about Rs 1,600 crore to Telangana state Transco, and Andhra Pradesh officials were ready to settle the issue.
Mr Prabhakar Rao said the open access system — which allows users to purchase power from any generator — was costing Transco Rs 400 crore per year.
Mr Prabhakar Rao said Transco had requested the Electricity Regulatory Commission to examine if a power purchase agreement with a power plant in Tamil Nadu could be cancelled; this electricity was being billed at Rs 6.80 per unit.
