Telangana, Andhra Pradesh enter into power struggle

Hyderabad: A fresh row over the sale of electricity is brewing between the two Telugu states. Telangana power officials say that the electricity being offered by AP is costlier, in violation of the AP Reorganisation Act. AP officials say the tariff is in tune with the Act. TS Discoms had floated tenders to purchase 2,000 MW and AP discoms and APGenco applied to sell 500 MW.

TS power officials said the price quoted by AP was over Rs 5.30 per unit. AP officials said they are willing to sell power at less than Rs 5 per unit. “The AP officials are playing a game. As per the Act, the first choice of refusal is with TS. The AP power utilities should have approached us directly to sell the power within the pooled cost that they incurred,” said an official with the TS energy sector.

“Instead, they took the bidding route and quoted their own rate. Why should we buy from them at a higher cost,” the officer said. AP officials said they could have gone to private companies or other states to sell the power but made the first offer to Telangana state which is in tune with the Reorganisation Act. If there is a problem with the pricing, it can always be discussed, they said.

AP has become power-surplus with the recent commissioning of the 1,600MW Sri Damo-daram Sanjeevaiah supercritical thermal power project in the public sector and 2,640MW project promoted by SembCorp Gayatri in the private sector. Telangana is still power deficit and is purchasing electricity from private companies to ensure 24x7 supply. Demand is expected to grow during the summer. Besides, the government’s promise of supplying nine-hour uninterrupted power during the day to the farm sector will also jack up demand.