AP identifies 6 districts to encourage wind power units

The Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to allow setting up of wind power generation farms identifying six districts in the State.

This move follows increasing demand for power in the State in the past two-three years. The demand is also shooting up during the rabi season leading up to the summer months. Earlier, the State was going slow on wind power projects.

The State Principal Secretary Energy, Mr Suthirtha Bhattacharya, has communicated to district collectors of Anathapur, Kurnool, Nellore, Ranga Reddy, Chittoor and Kadapa, exhorting them to give fillip to the setting up of wind power projects, indicating the potential in respective districts. It is estimated that these six districts have a capacity to attract about 2,500 MW of capacity of wind power. Of this, barely 170 MW is installed and about 1,650 MW have been allocated for development. According to a statement from the Energy Coordination Cell, the State Government has drawn up both short-term and long-term plans to meet the growing energy demand in the State, which is estimated to be increasing by about 10 per cent each year. As a part of this initiative, the short-term strategy is to generate about 3300 MW additionally by 2013-14 with an outlay of Rs. 18,000 crore.

Referring to the long-term strategy, according to the directions of the Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, the State Government expects to augment additional power capacity of about 18,503 MW by the end of 2017, making it a power surplus State.

The State expects to add about 500 MW of additional power capacity from Kothagudem thermal power station during the summer itself, partly augmenting additional power requirement.

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