Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Farm power supply on right track: Minister

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad Oct. 7. Agriculture pumpsets in the State, estimated at over 22 lakhs, have been on a relentless operation in the past few days, drawing whatever groundwater is available to prevent crops from drying up. The pumpsets are serving crops over an extent of 75 lakh acres for this kharif season with paddy being one of the important crops. The severity of the dry spell is such that irrigation has become purely pumpset-based in most parts of the State, especially Telangana and the district of Chittoor.

The pumpsets have become bulk users, being under constant operation, consuming about 50 million units a day. According to feedback given by the CMDs and CEs/SEs of districts to the Minister for Energy, K. Subbarayudu, at a video-conference here today, the third in series, the revised schedule with two spells of uninterrupted supply--four hours during daytime and five hours at night, "has stabilised itself and is working well". The overlapping of agriculture and domestic/industries feeders which resulted in three to four hours of unscheduled cuts in different areas over and above the officially announced load relief, especially in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Mahabubnagar and Warangal districts have been overcome.

On the fourth day of their implementation, there was no major problem reported from any district as the Minister took stock of the situation accompanied by the Transco CMD, Rachel Chatterjee, its Transmission, Commercial and Technical directors, M. Gopalachary, P. M. K. Gandhi and M. V. Birichnhi. A number of CEs/SEs reported that the problems cited by the Minister last night by telephone, were solved. The Minister stated the crops could be saved if the staff continued same tempo for another month--at least up to November 15.

Meanwhile, scheduled power cut going up to six hours continued all over the State except in Hyderabad and Secunderabad which, however, were given exemption, with the shortage remaining around 10 million units per day. The availability out of all sources remains around 140.8 million units per day, as on Sunday (compared to 103 mu this day last year) as compared to (unrestricted) demand which is at 150 mu these days. Owing to the dry spell, the operation of the pumpset has gone up by 23 per cent.

In a positive development, the Neyveli plant rejoined the grid today contributing 126 MW to the State. The Simhadri second unit which played hide and seek till the other day, was giving about 370 MW. However, the NTPC's Ramagundam unit is still out of order and hence unable to contribute its share of 150 MW to the State. It is expected to be restored in a few days.

In view of this the power cut on the domestic sector will continue.

Genco chief calls for change in equity norms: In a related development, the AP Genco CMD said, he wanted the rate of return on equity for a power utility linked to RBI interest rates as an alternative to the present norm which allows benefit at 16 per cent.

Speaking at the inaugural function of a four-day training programme on "power purchase agreements" (PPA) on the Central Institute of Rural Electrification campus, Mr. Parthasarathy maintained that this would bring down the cost of generation and ensure benefit to end-users.

The Genco CMD said a PPA should follow the guidelines issued by the Central Electricity Authority and that of the Central Regulatory Commission. The guidelines should cover parameters like interest and auxiliary consumption, and provide scope for review.

The programme is being attended by executives of power utilities in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh and Uttaranchal and those of the regulatgory commissions of Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

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