The Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) power distribution companies (DISCOMs) subscribed to the Late Payment Surcharge (LPS) scheme introduced by the Central government to reduce their liability to generators in a phased manner over the next 12 months.
The total outstanding payments of DISCOMs as of Monday amount to ₹17,060 crore, of which the DISCOMs have paid ₹1,422 crore towards the first instalment on August 6, according to the special chief secretary (energy) K. Vijayanand.
Participating as the chief guest in the Independence Day celebrations at Vidyut Soudha here on Monday, Mr. Vijayanand said the above scheme would help the DISCOMs in clearing their debts, and strengthen AP-Genco thereby facilitating reliable power supply.
Further, he said that the government entered into an agreement with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to purchase 7,000 MW of power for supplying it to farmers under the free power scheme.
The AP-Genco saved ₹118.5 crore in coal purchases and ₹405 crore through reserve tendering in the Polavaram hydel project. The A.P. Power Development Corporation Limited saved ₹390 crore in reverse tendering and ₹204 crore in purchasing coal from Singareni Collieries Company Limited.
Mr. Vijayanand said as far as the power generation capacity was concerned, the new 800-MW unit of Sri Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Station at Krishnapatnam would be commissioned in October, 2022. The expansion of Dr. Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station by 800 Megawatts would be completed by February 2023.
Besides, the government accorded administrative approval for ₹510 crore for establishing additional 2X115 MW units at the existing lower Sileru hydro power project. A pumped storage project (9X150MW) at upper Sileru was planned to balance the grid and facilitate the injection of more renewable energy into it.
The distribution losses of SPDCL came down to 8.10%, EPDCL to 6.60% and CPDCL to 8.05% by 2021-22. The aggregate technical and commercial losses were down to 15.45% in SPDCL, 7.81% in EPDCL and 8.05% in CPDCL.
The gap between annual revenue requirement and the average cost of service was reduced to Rs.0.49 per unit in CPDCL and ₹0.16 in EPDCL.
In the last three years, the government extended financial assistance of around ₹40,000 crore to the DISCOMs, Mr. Vijayanand added.
AP-Transco CMD B. Sreedhar, joint managing directors B. Malla Reddy and I. Prudhvi Tej and others were present.
