Saturday, Apr 20, 2002
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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Special Correspondent
The documents were signed at a brief function at the Taj Banjara Hotel by G. P. Rao, APERC Chairman, Aaron Wilson, PPUC Commissioner, and Sridhar Samudrala, Deputy Programme Manager, USEA, in the presence of the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, and the Energy Minister, K. Subbarayudu. The APERC was the sixth in the country to execute such an MoU with the PPUC-USEA combine, the five earlier parties being the regulatory commissions of Orissa, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. The tripartite MoU through which the APERC gets about Rs 2 crores of assistance from the combine, provides for exchange of information/data and the available knowledge and technology for the purposes of administration, restructuring, finance and accounting, independent power, marketing, customer services, bulk power transactions, power dispatching, power system and operation and control, energy management systems, telecommunications, transmission and distribution system and development and strategic planning. Even before today's MoU signing, the APERC and PPUC officials exchanged trips five times to each others' places and this was possible because of the rapport made by Mr Sridhar Samudrala who hails from Andhra Pradesh. Answering queries from reporters later, Mr Samudrala said the MoU would be effective for two years and based on the outcomes and needs, the exchange programme would be extended further. Giving his remarks on the occasion, Mr G. P. Rao said rather in a testifying tone, that the State Government was upholding the commission's independence and financial autonomy. He stated that the Government did not wash off its hands with the constitution of the commission through an Assembly Act but extended support even after and through the transition period although such support placed a heavy burden on the exchequer. On the ticklish issue of tariff rates, the Chairman made a passing reference saying that the rates would increase so long as the utility did not improve its efficiency. He said after the five visits to the Pennsylvania utility, the APERC was able to distribute the workload properly among its engineering and other staff. Mr Aaron Wilson said he was pleased that his PPUC had joined with APERC which was making great strides in this part of the globe. Richard Edwards, Director, Energy Environment and Enterprise, a wing in USAID, Delhi, stressed the need for reduction in transmission and distribution losses and effecting cost-to-serve price. Mr T. B. Narasimha Rao, Secretary, APERC, welcomed the gathering and Mr Sridhar Samudrala proposed a vote of thanks.
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