Seemandhra to be power surplus; Telangana may face deficit

Seemandhra, comprising Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra, would host most of the power projects compared to Telangana after Andhra Pradesh is bifurcated.

Coal-based power plants are mostly located in Seemandhra. For hydro-power plants in the undivided State, there would be a joint-management by the Godavari River Management Board and Krishna River Management Board.

This is part of the Bill proposing division of the State has been sent to the State Assembly, said M Sahoo, Principal Secretary (Energy) of Andhra Pradesh.

However, Telangana would also have some power plants, Sahoo told Business Line .

Industry watchers are drawing a parallel to the situation in 2000 when Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh. The new State became power surplus because of most of the power plants were in its territory, while Madhya Pradesh went dry.

Currently, Andhra Pradesh has total installed power generation capacity of 17,285.48 MW. Of this, 11,980.68 MW is based on thermal, while 3,734.53 MW is based on hydro sources. Most of these capacities (9,046.06 MW) are owned by the State, while 5,082.66 MW are run by private players and remaining 3,156.76 MW are owned by Central undertakings.

Most of the coal-based power plants are located in the coastal regions because of their connectivity to the ports.

For instance, Visakhapatnam, which would be a part of Seemandhra, is the second biggest port in the country.

The port handles coal as well as crude oil. Similarly, Gangavaram is another port close to Visakhapatnam.

NTPC is expected to set up 4,000 MW of new capacities to meet the power demand of newly born Telangana.

In addition, there would be a re-alignment of the electricity distribution utilities. In 2000, the State un-bundled electricity distribution into four utilities – Eastern Power Distribution Company (APEPDCL), Southern Electricity Distribution Company, Northern Power Distribution Company (APNPDCL) and Central Power Distribution Company (APCPDCL).

At present, the Central Power Distribution utility is the biggest. However, two districts – Ananthapur and Kurnool – would have to be shifted to another administrative region.

Distribution utilities can be set up on executive orders. It is yet to be decided whether some of the districts would be re-grouped into the existing discoms or a new utility would be created, Sahoo added.

In December, Andhra Pradesh suffered a deficit of 1.6 per cent. There was an availability of 7,502 million units in the month against requirement of 7,622 million units.

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