The Hindu Business Line : APGenco rules out power cut in summer

WITH the rabi operations set to be completed in the State in about 15 days, the Andhra Pradesh Generation Corporation Ltd (APGenco) has given an assurance that there would be no power cuts during the summer months.

Addressing a press conference here today, the Principal Secretary - Energy, Government of Andhra Pradesh and CMD of APGenco, Mr D.K. Panwar, said that the good performance of Genco was mainly due to high plant load factor achieved by various generating stations, including a record creating 94.5 per cent PLF (plant load factor), the highest in the country, by the Kothagudem Stage V.

The provisional figures for the financial year 2004-05 indicate that APGenco is set to achieve Rs 60 crore profit as against Rs 10 crore last year.

The revenues too increased to Rs 4,282 crore, from last year's Rs 4,209 crore. The cost per unit has come down to Rs 1.63 in 2004-05 as against Rs 1.82 the previous year. The reduction is on account of efficient fuel and financial management by Genco, Mr Panwar said.

Mr Panwar said that they had swapped or restructured high-cost loans and saved Rs 75.84 crore on the interest component alone. The operation and maintenance expenditure has been restructured to Rs 423 crore and additional funding through various lenders is being finalised for new projects.

New projects: Giving details of new projects, Mr Panwar, along with senior officials, said that for the Rs 3300-crore Vijayawada Thermal Power Station "Siemens has become the L1 in the KFW, Germany-funded 660 MW supercritical thermal station.

"The project cost is working out to about Rs 6 crore per megawatt (MW) and the Government is working towards bringing down the cost through negotiations. The other bidders were a Japanese firm and Alsthom. Given the project cost, we may work on a new detailed project report to see if we can change this to regular project."

Referring to the 2x210 MW Rayalaseema thermal station, Mr Panwar said that the financial closure has been achieved through PFC, REC, Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank and the units would be commissioned in July and October 2006.

The Genco has received coal linkage for Bhoopalapally 500 MW unit and EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) tenders are likely to be completed by May and work set to commence by August.

REC has agreed to finance Rs 1,680 crore, which is about 80 per cent of the project cost. This is set for commissioning by October 2008.

Alongside, several hydel projects are at various stages of implementation, of them 6x39 MW Jurala would be developed through PFC funding, Nagarjuna Sagar Tail Pond through RFC funding of Rs 418 crore and Pochampad Hydel project of 9 MW would be in addition to existing three units of 9 MW.

A detailed project report has been commissioned for another 6x40 MW Jurala project to be taken up with total cost of Rs 570 crore. This is slated for completion by October 2007.

With regard to 1,400 MW Vemagiri gas project and Hyderabad metro project (1,400 MW), Reliance and Gail are being pursued for allocation of gas. On the issue of Reliance proposal for gas-based plant, this is likely in the XI Plan period, he explained.

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