Power supply crisis: Is there a solution?

GROPING IN DARK

By Express News Service - HYDERABAD

09th July 2012 11:04 AM

The state is facing a major power crisis. Relief from the cessation of agricultural activities in May has ended and utilities will now have to provide power for khariff season. As a result, the domestic consumers will have to go through an ordeal.

But the government does not have any sure fire method to solve the crisis except asking the consumers to grin and bear the situation.

With the situation turning alarming, the top brass of the power utility is putting its head together on July 11 to wriggle out by giving some excuses to the consumers.  In this critical juncture of power supply position, the principal secretary energy Dinesh Kumar has decided to review general power supply position and various aspects of power sector, that includes ensuring 7 hours power supply to farmers, status of short-term and medium-term bidding, separation of agricultural feeders, and other issues at an high level meeting to be held at Vidyut Soudha on July 11. CMDs of APTransco and Discoms will attend the meeting, after which the officials have to submit a report to the government.

The State government is contemplating giving permission to a maximum number of hydel projects on canals and rivulets. For this, a cabinet sub-committee has to visit some states and give its report. The government will then prepare a mini-hydel power policy and once the policy is in place, the construction of those projects will start. So far, there are only 36 commissioned hydel projects with a total capacity of 101 MW. "We want to encourage mini-hydel projects in a big way," minister Peddi Sudharshan Reddy, member of the sub-committee, said. But no one knows how long it will take to sanction the projects or how long it will take to commission the same.

"How are you going to overcome the shortage?" chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy asks officials at every review meeting for which the suggested solutions are impracticable in the short-run. For the last two years, there has been no improvement on the power supply front.

The supply of gas, lack of dedicated power corridor, slow progress in adding additional capacity and lack of sufficient coal are some of the major problems that have been encountered by the power utility for several years. Whenever there is a shortage of power because of monsoon failure, the officials blame the nature.

The only viable short term measure is buying power. So  far, 922 MW is tied up with different sources. Additional power from NTPC Jhajjar has been tied up (131 MW) for July and October. By then, the crop season will be nearing completion.

The medium term power purchase is concerned with technical bids that are still under evaluation. The price bid will be opened on July 15 and tenders will be finalised by August 2012 so as to secure transmission corridor by July 2013.

Transmission corridor: Whenever there is a shortage of power, the utility looks to other agencies and states to purchase power. Even if it was ready to pay higher price for unit, bringing electricity to the state is a difficult problem due to non-availability of Transmission Corridors.