Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday asserted that the government would not take up upward revision of power tariff for both industrial and domestic consumers.
At a review meeting on the energy sector, Mr. Naidu asked the officials to focus on supplying cheap power rather than increasing tariff. It would also help in tiding over the losses.
Outsourcing services
The expenditure on power supply could be brought down drastically by installing power storage system and encouraging solar and wind power in a big way. At the same time, it was necessary to bring down thermal power generation and purchases, he said, adding, “people come first. Find out ways to overcome the difficulties. I don’t want hike in power tariff under any circumstances.”
Asking the officials to outsource the services in the Energy Department, he said that creation of infrastructure and erection of sub stations, etc, should be based on demand-supply. Categorisation of the consumers for better services and immediate collection of dues from government departments and agencies should top the agenda, he said.
Setting a target of generating 400 MW solar power under 33/11 KV sub stations, the Chief Minister asked the officials to take steps to connect solar pump sets for agriculture. By connecting to the grid, it was possible to utilise the excess power, if any, which was unused by the farmers, he said.
Phenomenal growth
Earlier, officials told him that the energy sector had witnessed an overall growth of 7.3% compared to last year. Wind and solar energy contributed 17% and 5% of the total energy produced. Their growth compared to previous years was 154% and 183% respectively. Wind energy has a capacity of 3,765 MW and solar energy has a capacity of 1,994 MW, they said.
The revenue of the discoms was ₹25,290 crore, while the expenditure was ₹27,621 crore. The discoms were facing a loss of ₹2,331 crore, they said, adding, the State would get a revenue of ₹173 crore through sale of 1,089 million units to the States of Goa, Punjab, Bihar and Uttarakhand.