The Hindu Business Line : Power crisis: AP seeks Centre's help

The numbers
Tamil Nadu and Kerala offered to sell 100-400 MW of power to Andhra Pradesh this month.
While Karnataka got 328 MW of `unallocated power', Tamil Nadu received 334 MW and Kerala 293 MW. But Andhra Pradesh, which was facing severe shortage, was just getting 180 MW, Mr Reddy said.

Hyderabad , Jan. 7

Faced with a shortfall of 1,200 MW of power, Andhra Pradesh has appealed to the Union Government to help the State in tiding over the crisis by allotting additional 800 MW from the Central generation stations plants.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, wrote letters to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Union Ministers, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde (Power), and Mr Murali Deora (Petroleum and Natural Gas), asking them to release 500 MW from the 1,048 MW of unallocated power from the Southern region and 300 MW from the Eastern region.

Stating that there was a huge gap of 1,200 MW in the demand-supply position up to May, the Chief Minister attributed the shortage to the failure of ONGC/GAIL to supply gas to the gas-based power plants, leaving a capacity of 2,000 MW of generation capacity idle. "This is despite entering into firm gas supply agreements," he said.

Referring to the agreements for sale of power with the three other Southern States, he said Tamil Nadu and Kerala offered to sell 100-400 MW of power to Andhra Pradesh this month.

These States were able to sell power as they received huge amounts of `unallocated power' from Central stations. While Karnataka got 328 MW of `unallocated power', Tamil Nadu received 334 MW and Kerala 293 MW. But Andhra Pradesh, which was facing severe shortage, was just getting 180 MW, he pointed out.

In another letter to Mr Murali Deora, Mr Reddy asked the Centre to make ONGC supply more gas to the State.

He also wanted the Ministry to bear part of the financial burden cast on the State as a result of the non-compliance of gas supply agreements.

The Chief Minister, who is to visit New Delhi on January 10 and 11, is likely to discuss the issue with the Prime Minister.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister, who was touring the north coastal districts, reviewed the power situation with the officials. He noted that the number of consumers had gone up 1.79 crore from the 1.3 crore five years.

In the last two years alone, the number went up by 20 lakhs.

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