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Power crisis continues to haunt Andhra Pradesh due to severe shortage of coal and increasing demand from agriculture and domestic sectors, forcing the state government to continue with 50 percent supply to industrial sector, apart from continuing the power holiday once in a week to industries.
Though energy minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy announced a week ago that the restrictions in power supply would ease from May 1 due to additional power purchases by the state, there was no such respite to the consumers.
An official statement from the energy department said the daily demand for power in the state as on Sunday was 218.924 million units, which was met by resorting to purchase of 35.89 MU from the market, apart from the power generated from the thermal and hydel power stations of AP power generation corporation (APGenco), Central generating stations like NTPC and private power producers.
“The Andhra Pradesh is also facing severe shortage of coal at thermal power plants. As on Sunday, the coal stock availability in Vijayawada Thermal Power Station (VTPS) was sufficient for 1.14 days, Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant (RTPP) for 1.23 days, Krishnapatnam for 6.93 days and Hinduja for 1.95 days only,” the statement said.
The statement quoting the energy minister said adequate coal was not available to thermal power plants due to various constraints. “At the same time, there is an unexpected rise in demand due to abnormal increase in temperatures. As a result, the power purchase cost has hit a record high,” Reddy said.
With regard to restrictions on industrial sector, the minister said they were due to limited availability of power in open market, apart from coal shortage. “It is expected that the wind generation will start increasing from May 15, thereby increasing the availability of power and further ramp up of wind generation by the end of the month,” he said.
The state government has made a request to the central government seeking availability of coal to ensure power generation to meet the demand in the state. “Despite the shortage, the state government is ensuring adequate power supply to domestic and agriculture sectors,” the statement said.
Keeping in view of severe shortage of coal, the state government has directed APGenco to take all possible steps for procurement of even imported coal. “The AP power development corporation limited (APPDCL) has already called tenders for one lakh tons of better grade imported coal for jacking up of generation at Krishnapatnam thermal power plant,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, APGenco and APPDCL called tenders for imported coal to a tune of 31 lakh tonnes on Monday and the tender process is likely to complete within a month to meet the requirements of power generation.
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