Centre to settle Telangana and Andhra Pradesh power tiff

Hyderabad: The Centre will soon resolve the pending issues between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over power, said Union minister of state for power R.K. Singh.

Both the Telugu states had locked horns over several issues such as power sharing, PPAs, share in Krishnapatnam, Hinduja and Siler projects, etc. To resolve this issue, the BJP government had set up a committee headed by Neeraj Mathur, the chairperson of Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

“We will take a decision very soon to resolve the bifurcation issues betw-een Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. We will review the matter based on the Neerja Mathur committee report,” said Mr Singh, who spoke to a select media persons via a video conference from New Delhi on Tuesday.

Experts, however, claim that the power situation in both the states has changed drastically since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Telangana, which was formed as an energy deficit state, has become a power surplus state in the last four years.

"There was no follow up on the Neerja Mathur Committee. Earlier Telangana argued that PPAs were valid but Andhra Pradesh said they were not. The Mathur committee too favoured Telangana's stand on PPAs. But unexpectedly Telangana emerged as a power surplus state and it doesn’t need any PPAs with AP. We have to wait and watch how the issue will be solved,” said the expert.

Speaking on power to the farm sector, Mr Singh said that the Central government was in the process of setting up an exclusive feeder system for farmers across the country with an investment of Rs 15,000 crore.

“We have already begun this work and it’s being implemented in phases. Once the new feeder projects are completed, farmers need not depend upon diesel pump sets, which not only escalate cost of farming but makes farming troublesome," he said.

Under the Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan scheme, he said the Union power ministry has so far distributed 27.5 lakh solar pumps including 17.5 lakh standalone and 10 lakh grid-connected ones to farmers.

“The Centre is working on Sristi (sustainable Rooftop Implementation for Solar Transfiguration of India), a new scheme for solar rooftop. We have already finalised Round the Clock renewables policy,” he said.

Mr Singh further added that the Centre has waived off the inter-state transmission system charges and losses for inter-state sale of solar and wind power for projects to be commissioned by March 2022.

“This will encourage setting up of the projects in states that have greater resource potential and availability of suitable land. It also helps in creating a pan-India renewable power market, as generation in excess of the state’s own requirement could be transmitted to the resource poor states without additional financial burden,” said Mr Singh.

Powermin aims for 175gw of green energy

Union MoS for power R.K. Singh on Tuesday said that India will have 175 gigawatt renewable energy by 2022. Curr-ently, it already produces 110GW green power.

He said over $42 billion has invested to increase domestic renewable ene-rgy generation during last four years. “The Centre will revamp distribution system with an investment of Rs 75,000 crore,” he said.

India has added one lakh megawatt (100 gigawatt) generation capacity in the last four years. The country now generates 3,44,002MW compared to 2,43,029 MW in March 2014. “As a result, India emerges as a net exporter of electricity. It has supplied 7,203 million units (MU) of power to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar in FY18,” he said.