In the coming months Andhra Pradesh is moving towards extreme power crisis.On Tuesday March 6 on the floor of the State Legislative Assembly on behalf of CM Kiran Kumar Reddy, Minister Kanna Lakshmi Nayarana conveyed that the demand for power is increasing day by day.
As the Minister said that on normal AP DISCOMS have supplied 245 MU which is opposite to an average necessity of 261 MU per day at the time of February month.
The necessity from April 2011 to February this year was 81,320 MU against 71,301 MU for the corresponding period last year registering an increase of 14 per cent.
The minister said that the demand for power this year has been very high due to continuous dry-spell in the State leading to increased demand from agriculture and domestic sectors.
Energy deficit in the State during the current year is 6.2 per cent, as compared to all India average deficit of 8.1 per cent.
Lakshmi Narayana said that despite capacity addition of 5,311 MW in the State during last seven years, there is power deficit in the State.
The power deficit is mainly on account of reduced production of gas in KG Basin. The nine gas-based projects with installed capacity of 2,772 MW are currently generating only around 1,500 MW. There is an idle capacity of around 1,272 MW (30 MU/day) due to reduced supply of gas.
Hydel generation this year so far has been only 5,837 MU against 7,048 MU last year. The total water availability in major reservoirs of Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Sileru is 90 TMC at present against 341 TMC last year thereby resulting in a deficit of around 1,195 MU.
The additional hydel generation during the year is expected to be only around 887 MU as against 2,082 MU of hydel potential during last year.
The Minister said that the during the SCCL strike period in September and October 2011, additional 72 TMC of water was used in Srisailam and 11 TMC of water was used in Sileru to maintain satisfactory power supply, as thermal generation from NTPC and APGENCO stations came down, due to reduced coal supply.
Lakshmi Narayana said that the State has taken advance action to purchase power during the period from February to May 2012 and orders were placed outside the Southern Region for purchase of 1,387 MW of power in August 2011.
However, due to severe transmission corridor constraint between North- East - West (NEW) Grid and Southern Region Grid, AP could get only 546 MW of power.
In addition to the above, 734 MW is being procured from Southern Region. A total of 1,280 MW of power is being purchased from February to May 2012.
The Central Government has allocated additional 231 MW of power from NTPC Jhajjar Unit from October 2011 till May 2012.
In spite of the above mentioned necessities, As the minister said that a free power supply to 29.84 lakh agriculture pumpsets for seven hours was being confirmed.And it is also being confirmed for drinking water schemes.
