The Hindu Business Line : AP gears to meet power demand

To meet the increased demand for power, the Andhra Pradesh Government is gearing up to step up hydel generation and also power purchase from Central and other generating stations.

The State Power Minister, Mr Mohd Ali Shabbir, said that the State was fully geared to meet the growing demand for electricity, which is likely to go up further over the next two to three months.

The State was purchasing 5.4 million units of power daily and has also encouraged the gas-based power projects to generate power using naphtha fuel.

Releasing the schedule of release of water from reservoirs to step up hydel power generation during the next three months, power generation is likely to be stepped up from both at the Srisailam and Nargarjunasagar hydel projects.

700 MW TO BE ADDED

With the additional power generation from hydel units, the State is likely to add about 700 MW during February and this would to a large extent be able to meet the increased demand, particularly to support the ongoing rabi crop season.

It is estimated that against the current demand of 155 million units a day, this is likely to go up to 170-180 million units by March 2007.

As per estimates, the State was faced with a shortage due to lower generation from gas-based plants.

To meet the enhanced demand, the State is poised to add about 459 MW from Rayalaseema units II and III and from Jurala projects.

It is likely that additional 1167 MW would be added to the State electricity generation capacity by 2008, thereby, significantly easing up the demand-supply situation.

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