Power to state capital opposed

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, March 4, 2014: While the proposed power plants in various parts of Seemandhra are at the verge of being commissioned in the coming days, making the successor state power surplus, a new demand is brewing in this part of the state, that power generated in the region should be utilized only here but not be shared with Telangana.

Union minister and the member of GoM that worked on the bifurcation of the state, Jairam Ramesh on Monday here said that 85 percent of power will be allotted as per the Gadgil formula of according to population and the remaining 15 percent as per the actual consumption.

Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema have an installed generation capacity of 3,810 MW thermal power and 1,000 MW share from NTPC Simhadri here also adds to the Seemandhra power house.  Around 1,800 MW is generated from hydel stations
in Nagarjunasagar right canal power station, Penna, Srisailam, Sileru and Tungabhadra.

Both thermal and hydel power generated together touches nearly 5,626 MW against the demand of 4,000 MW from all categories of consumers from the 13 districts of north Andhra. Though Seemandhra generates surplus power, the region is facing power cuts, power holidays for industries as considerable amount of power is supplied to Hyderabad.

“As Hyderabad revenue is not shared with us there is no need to share power with them with immediate effect as president has divided the state officially. There will be no power cuts for us if implemented. As we are under central rule now to help seema andhra recover from shock of loss of capital city governor and president of India should see to that new allocation to Defence by separate power allocation for Eastern Naval Command (ENC),” said Vizag Development Council (VDC), vice president, O Naresh Kumar.

It is also learnt that various coal fired power plants with the installed capacity of 2,550 mw are at the verge of completion and ready to generate power from next year onwards. These plants include Sri Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Plant at Krishnapatnam with capacity of 1,600 MW, a 600-MW plant at RTPP, Muddanur and two more small Plants.