Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh government will reduce one rupee per unit for those using smart meters during non-peak timings. Speaking to media persons after reviewing the functioning of the department, energy minister Kimidi Kala Venkata Rao revealed there would be no increase in power tariff and efforts are on to supply uninterrupted power in the state.
The minister said priority is being given to the agriculture sector and 87,000 applications for electricity connections have been received by the department during 2018-19 and connections would be given by July this year. He also mentioned that 2,69,303 agricultural connections have alraedy been given. There has been an increase in subsidy to power supply in agricultural sector that was Rs 6,030 crore during 2018-19, he said. The minister has ordered the discoms to clear the pending applications for 75,000 agricultural pumpsets. It has been estimated that during peak summer season the demand is expected to reach 185 MU (million units) per day, while the peak demand is expected to reach 9,000 MU.
He also disclosed that efforts were on to supply quality and uninterrupted power supply. Moving in tandem with the chief minister’s desire to encourage clean energy in the state, 2,090 MW of power is being produced by harnessing solar energy and 3,220 MW of power is being produced from wind energy. Around 17% of total energy generated in 2017- 18 is from renewable energy sources as against 5% in 2014- 15.
Venkata Rao said the government has been supplying 14 lakh units of power to SC, ST power consumers, including 75 units free for every house.
Power usage stands at 185 million units and it is expected that the demand will increase to 9,000 MW during summer, he said. To meet the power needs, thermal power stations have been asked to maintain coal reserves. Besides, efforts are on to generate 2,560MW of addition power by 2022 and one lakh electric vehicles will be procured in phased manner, he said. He pointed out, expenditure for running electrical vehicle will come down to 0.89 paise against Rs 4.40 for normal vehicles.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
