The Union government has extended financial support of ₹ 6,600 crore under the Atmanirbhar Loans to Andhra Pradesh power utilities and directions have been given to release ₹ 3,300 crore under the second trench, according to Srikant Nagulapalli, AP Energy Sector.
Speaking at the 72 nd Republic Day celebrations, he said that the Centre will release second tranche of ₹3,300 crore and it has earlier released ₹3,300 crore under Tranche-I of the scheme.
The Secretary said that the Union Power Ministry had expressed happiness over the power sector interventions in AP and congratulated Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for his initiative to introduce the direct benefit transfer scheme for free power to agriculture sector.
The nine-hours day time free power supply to agriculture scheme will make agriculture as a profitable activity and empower farmers.
In order to bring down power purchase costs and make the Discoms financially sustainable, the State government has initiated steps to reduce the high power purchase costs.
The power utilities procured 6,320 MU power from open market during the current financial year. The average cost of procurement, including transmission charges is ₹ 3.12 per unit against the approved weighted average procurement cost of ₹ 4.55 per unit.
“We were able to save ₹ 1.43/ unit and the benefit accrued up to December 2020 was ₹ 1,024 crore. This will immensely benefit the power sector and strengthen the 24x7 quality and affordable power supply. The objective of the government is to achieve cost effective power which will benefit people of the State and spur economic development,” he said.
The secretary said the power utilities reduced total Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses to 13.36 per cent in 19-20 from 16.36 per cent in 2018-19.
The APTransco also intends to develop four more day-ahead forecast models for wind energy, solar energy, market prices, Central Generating Stations surplus, and frequency.
As part of improving the finances of Discoms, the State government released ₹ 17,904 crore in 2019-20 towards clearing subsidy arrears of Discoms.