Amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown, AP Transco has swapped high cost power with cheaper power through spot power purchase from energy exchanges which has

resulted in a net savings of ₹56 crore in March.

The Transco strategically decided to buy power in the spot market where the prices hovered at around ₹2 per kWh.

According to officials, 14-20 million units (MU) per day were purchased from the power exchanges in March. In all, 357.22 MUs were purchased at prices ranging between ₹2.04 and ₹2.64 per unit.

“With this, the per unit average procurement cost from the exchange is ₹1.57 less than the average power procurement cost allowed by the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission. This has resulted in the net savings of ₹56 crore in March 2020. And we are closely monitoring the rates on a daily basis,” State Energy Secretary N Srikant, said.

Fall in demand

AP is among the States that saved public money through purchases from in-power purchases during the present crisis. The nationwide ‘Janata curfew’ gave a first-hand indication of how the grid demand in the State would fall and they could sense the corresponding fall in revenue collections and the market scenario due to the lockdown.

The peak demand of the State drifted from 11,000 MW to 8,500 MW and the minimum demand is pegged at 6,000 MW instead of 8,000 MW during normal times due to the lockdown during which all bulk consumers (industries, railways, commercial establishments, HT consumers, etc) were shutdown.

Due to this, all high-cost conventional energy sources are kept under reserve shutdown — the period when the plant is temporarily closed until the demand for power rises .

The thermal power stations utilised the opportunity to save the coal stocks of up to 13 lakh tonnes, sufficient to meet requirements for 21 days. After exhausting all the ‘must run’ stations like hydel, wind, solar, the central generating stations and gas stations are operated in line with the grid demand, merit order and retail supply tariff orders approved by the APERC.

Earlier moves

The State Government saved around ₹500 crore in power purchases few months ago and ₹180 crore in coal transport tenders. Now the utilities have saved ₹56 crore in power purchases.

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