The Union Minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, has stated that Andhra Pradesh (AP) has been chosen as the first state to implement the Centre's pilot project of uninterrupted power supply.
This will be the Union government's first and an important incentive to Andhra Pradesh, which has been facing severe power shortage, especially in the wake of carving out of Telangana on 2 June. Goyal said that the Centre's pilot project for AP will supply 24-hours of power all through the state. Later, the Union government will implement the project in other states as well.
Goyal said that the government is working on the detailed guidelines and finances required to implement 24-hour power supply to AP. The Union government will support AP in all the ways with regard to power supply, he added.
Piyush told mediapersons on board a special flight, en route Guntur, on Sunday to attend Nara Chandrababu Naidu's swearing-in as the AP Chief Minister.
In the backdrop of forming Telangana out of united AP, the available power has been distributed to the two new states - Telangana and AP on the basis of consumption of people. In the process, Naidu told the Centre that AP has lost 1,500 megawatts of power to Telangana, Goyal added. Naidu has also explained to the Centre about severity of power shortage in the state and urged to compensate the shortfall of the power immediately.
Now the Union Minister's statement to give uninterrupted power supply to AP is indeed a boon, especially to farmers.
According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), generation of power in the united AP had declined by 5.3 percent to 87,167 kwh. A cosiderable drop in power generation by hydro power plants and gas-based thermal plants in the state is the main reason for power shortages in AP, CMIE cited.
"Power generation from hydro sources dropped by a steep 45.7 percent to 3,457 million kwh. While generation from the gas based thermal power plants saw a sharp fall of 43.1 percent to 10,300 million kwh. Since then, power sector in Andhra Pradesh has not shown any signs of recovery. Power generation in the first three quarters of 2013-14 has shown a cumulative fall of 3.6 percent y-o-y," CMIE stated recently.
Goyal was addressing officers of Ministries of Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, in New Delhi on 2 June 2014.
