24 hour power for all in Telangana: Minister

Hyderabad, Oct 5 (INN): Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy has said that the Telangana Government was committed to supply 24 hours of power to all category of consumers in the State by 2018-19.

Making a statement in Telangana State Legislative Assembly on Monday, the minister informed that the installed capacity on the day of formation of Telangana on June 2, 2014 was 4365.26 MW. It included 2282.50 MW of Thermal, 2081.76 of Hydel and 1 MW of Solar power. He alleged that the after the bifurcation of State, Andhra Pradesh Government has not scheduled the legitimate power to Telangana State which included 390 MW from Sileru Complex, 862 MW from Krishnapatnam and 307 MW from Wind Projects in Anantapur.

"Due to neglect of Telangana in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, lack of proper planning in forecasting the demand and non-scheduling of power by AP, Telangana State inherited huge deficit in power resulting in acute shortage of power. On the day of formation of Telangana State, 4-8 hours of load relief to domestic and other consumers and one day power holiday to industries was prevailing in the State. He said during the first six months after the bifurcation, power utilities have undertaken number of measures including improvement of TSGENCO PLF from 74% to 80%; Reduction of T&D losses from 16.83% to 15.98% and Staggering of loads to 24 hours of the day. They also entered into short term power purchase agreements and purchase from exchange.

Jagadish Reddy said orders for around 3300 MW have been placed for procurement of power through Medium Term and Short Term purchases. Orders for around 435 MW placed for generation additional power from IPPs using pooled gas up to September 2015. Further, orders for around 550 MW placed from October 2015 to March 2016. The Ministry of Power has allocated 222 MW power till September 2015 and thereafter 374 MW up to March 2016 from NTPC Jhajjar Power Station. Power is being purchased through power exchanges as and when available at a reasonable rate, he said.

The Minister said that the TSGENCO has already grounded 5880 MW of projects at Manuguru, Kothagudem and Dameracherla within record time of one year. This entire capacity of 5880 MW is coming up in the government sector with equity support from the government. Financial closure is already achieved for these projects with sanction of Rs. 30,232 crore by PFC & REC towards the loan component. While Manuguru (1080 MW) is expected to be commissioned by December 2016, Kothagudem(800 MW) and Dameracherla (4000 MW) are likely to be commissioned by December 2017 and December 2018 respectively. Environmental clearances for all these projects have been obtained in a record time including the forest clearances. Coal linkages for these projects are being pursued with the Ministry of Coal and boilers are also designed to run with imported coal.

Similarly, the 2nd Stage Thermal Power Project of TSGENCO at Bhupalpally will be commissioned in October/November this year and 1200 MW of Thermal Power by Singareni Collieries will also be commissioned in the next six months. Singareni Collieries has also planned to set up another 600 MW unit. In addition, about 700 MW of power is expected from CGS Stations by 2018. PPA was signed with Chattisgarh for 100 MW of power and Wardha-Maheshwaram 765 KV DC Line is expected to be commissioned by December 2016. 840 MW of power is being procured from M/s Thermal Powertech Corporation of India Limited.

"Due to persuation of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao with Government of India, the NTPC has started work no setting up of 4000 MW of Thermal Power Plant at Ramagundem. This project is exclusively dedicated to Telangana as per the Reorganisation Act 2014. Government of India has already allocated coal linkage. Tenders are called for 2x800 MW," he said.

In addition to 215 MW of available Solar Power, about 3300 MW of solar power would be commissioned by December 2016 and government plans to add another 2000 MW in the next two-three years. Similarly, in addition to installed hydel capacity of 2082 MW, Lower (240 MW) and Pulichintala (120 MW) will be commissioner in the year 2015-16.

Jagadish Reddy said that the total generating capacity will be 24,272 MW by Financial Year 2018-19. He also listed out other measures being taken by the State Government to improvise the energy scenario.