Even as the opposition parties are making a hue and cry over the steep hike in the power tariffs in Andhra Pradesh due to the reforms initiated by the Union government, the BJP alleges that the inefficiency and mismanagement of the YSRCP government has led to a power crisis in the State.
The State government was poised to levy an additional burden of ₹700 crore on the power consumers, said BJP official spokesperson Lanka Dinakar while addressing the media here on September 8 (Friday).
Mr. Dinakar said the power bills were burning a hole in the pocket of the consumers as the State government had made an upward revision in the tariffs in eight spells in the last four years, which ultimately resulted in a hike of about two to three times the tariff that prevailed in 2019 when Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power.
“The government is buying power from the open market by paying ₹26 per unit. The additional burden from this month will be ₹700 crore. The government had already collected ₹529 crore as true-up charges between 2015 and 2019,” he said.
The Discoms were running in losses. While the debts touched ₹84,183 crore, the losses were ₹29,928 crore. The government utterly failed in assessing the demand and supply, Mr. Dinakar said.
PLF plummets
The fallout of poor planning had its impact on power generation too in the State, he added. The Plant Load Factor — the ratio of actual energy generated by a power plant to the maximum possible energy it could have generated during a given period — of thermal power units had come down to 67.43% in August compared to 75.03% between April and August this year, he said. “The coal stocks are sufficient for only two days. It speaks volumes of the sordid state of affairs,” Mr. Dinakar said.
Also, the possibility of generating 6,600 MWs through the seven hydel projects was hanging in the balance as the government was determined to allot the projects to the YSRCP followers. Consequently, the government was forced to purchase power at ₹26 per unit in the open market, he added.
