TS Govt Plans New Power Policy for 24/7 Supply

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said that the state government will soon bring a new Electricity Policy to ensure 24x7 power to all consumers. The CM directed officials to devise plans to implement the 'Gruha Jyothi' free power scheme, one of the six guarantees of the Congress, which promises to provide up to 200 units of free power to households in the state.

Revanth stated that the Congress government will provide 24x7 power to all sectors and 24x7 free power to agriculture as promised during Assembly polls.

The CM propounded the need to implement a comprehensive new power policy in the state after conducting a detailed study of the existing power policies adopted by various state governments and holding discussions with energy experts. Revanth held a review meeting on the power sector with ministers and officials at the Secretariat on Wednesday. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Ministers N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and  D. Sridhar Babu were also present.

The CM discussed the issues of power consumption, supply of 24-hour uninterrupted power, power generation by the companies, measures for new power generation units, and 200 units of free power supply under the Griha Jyoti scheme in detail. The officials briefed CM about the installed capacity of electricity generation in Telangana, power purchases from various power utilities, regular power consumption, the performance of the DISCOMS, and the financial situation.

The CM instructed the officials to conduct a comprehensive study and submit a detailed report regarding the agreements entered by the electricity companies and the Electricity Regulatory Council (ERC) from 2014 till date,  contents of those agreements, prices approved for the purchase of power

The CM also asked the officials to furnish the details of year-wise agreements entered by the discoms and related information. The officials were also instructed to provide information about the reasons behind entering agreements by paying excess to the power supply companies. The CM instructed the authorities to purchase the power from the companies that are supplying at low prices in the open market.

Revanth opined that difficulties and problems were arising due to the non-formulation of a constructive electricity policy so far in the state. The CM ordered the officials to visit other states and study the power policies,  electricity conditions, and the best policies adopted and submit the reports to the government. The CM  said that the government will also discuss with energy experts, and people representatives from all parties in the Assembly to introduce a new power policy.

The CM also instructed the officials to prepare plans to increase power generation capacity in the government sector, study the possibilities of setting up more power companies, and speed up the works at the new power generation plants that are under construction. The CM suggested preventing the misuse of electricity and increasing the quality of the power supply. He also ordered officials to take strong and proactive measures to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity in the state.

Chief secretary A. Santhi Kumari, special chief secretary, finance K. Ramakrishna Rao, irrigation principal secretary Rahul Bojja, Transco CMD S A M Rizvi, TSSPDCL CMD Musharraf Farooqui, CMO principal secretary V.SHeshadri, special secretary Ajith Reddy were present in the meeting.