Energy Minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy on Thursday took stock of the challenges facing the power utilities, especially the ways to put an end to the prevailing crisis, in the run-up to the high-level meeting scheduled to be held on April 18.
In a teleconference, Mr. Ramachandra Reddy told the officials to explore the means to make the utilities financially resilient and improve efficiencies across the board.
He wanted focus to be laid on tackling the coal crisis and strengthening the infrastructure in order to achieve better service delivery. Steps should be taken to restore normalcy in power supply by May 1, the Minister said.
He further said the demand for electricity increased substantially, but the A.P. power utilities were able to ensure uninterrupted supply to the domestic consumers and for seven hours to agriculture sector during daytime, which was targeted to be increased to nine hours from May 1.
He maintained that the power deficit was a temporary phenomenon, and appealed to all the consumers to extend their cooperation till the situation eased.
Constraints in coal transportation, seasonal conditions, coal price variation in the market etc. were affecting 24X7 power supply. Besides, the Russia-Ukraine war caused disruptions in the global coal supply chain, he said.
Mr. Ramachandra Reddy said the Chief Minister was keen on developing the power sector, for which the support of consumers was essential, even as the AP-Genco, Transco and the DISCOMs did their bit to solve the problems confronted by them.
Energy Secretary B. Sreedhar, AP-Transco Joint Managing Director I. Prudhvi Tej, DISCOMs’ CMDs H. Haranatha Rao, J. Padma Janardhana Reddy and K. Santhosh Rao, and AP-Transco Director (grid) A.V.K. Bhaskar were among those who spoke.
