Hyderabad: The Telangana Electricity Engineers’ Association said on Saturday that attempts to cancel the PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements) by Andhra Pradesh was a conspiracy against Telangana, and threatened of dire consequences if the PPAs were cancelled.
The engineers threatened to cut off power to all AP government offices including the Assembly, Secretariat and CM Chandrababu Naidu’s residence. The Association wants the Telangana government to take up a legal battle to get its share of power.
“The PPAs are very much valid and the Andhra Pradesh government is attempting to grab the power plants — VTPS and RTPS — which are producing cheap power, as the fixed charges for the projects have already been recovered. These plants were inherited by the erstwhile APGenco from APSEB (AP State Electricity Board) and since the people of Telangana have paid the fixed charges, Telangana will be losing cheap power if the PPAs are cancelled. AP should pay back '15,000 crore to Telangana,” said president of the Association, N. Shivaji, on Saturday.
The Association demanded that the Telangana government should take up the issue on a legal platform, and also take disciplinary action against IAS officers connected with the PPAs. It said the PPAs were submitted to the APERC with technical faults that gave rise to current problems.
“All PPAs do not require the APERC’s consent and in fact, the PPAs have been followed by APGenco for many years, and the APERC has given tariff orders based on PPAs. These were not signed because APGenco did not furnish information in the required format for approval. Moreover, why is APGenco not asking for cancellation of PPAs with private producers like Lanco? If the PPAs are cancelled, it will lead to serious consequences. We will cut supply to all AP offices including the Secretariat, Assembly and even the CM’s residence,” said Association’s advisor, Mohan Reddy.
