BRS Handling of Power Deals Shocking: Expert

Hyderabad: Telangana Electricity JAC leader K. Raghu said that the previous BRS government had entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chhattisgarh government to purchase electricity instead of going for competitive bidding.

The BRS government paid Rs.600 crore to build a dedicted power corridor for the 1,000 MW of Chhattisgarh power. Even when Chhattisgarh stopped providing power in 2022, Telangana was paying Rs,600 crore for the power corridor.

Also, the earlier BRS government began purchasing power from the open market and burdened the state with an additional Rs.2,000 crore. The Centre offered power at Rs.4 per unit, he said. The BRS government, citing urgency, went to Chhattisgarh in 2014 but electricity started flowing only in 2017.

He was speaking to mediapersons after giving a presentation before the Justice Narasimha Reddy Commission, appointed to inquire about power purchase with the Chhattisgarh government and irregularities in setting up Yadadri and Bhadradri thermal power projects.

Raghu said that the then BRS government entered into a second agreement to purchase another 1,000 MW. On realising that it was very expensive, the BRS government dropped the plan midway. For this, the state was asked to pay a Rs.260-crore penalty. The issue is pending with the Central Electricity Commission, Raghu said.

He said the Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission had suggested 16 changes in PPAs and gave an interim order clearing the power purchase for the time being at Rs.3.90 per unit. The BRS government did not return to the ERC with the updated PPA.

Raghu also blamed the BRS government for giving Bhadradri and Yadadri thermal power projects to BHEL on nomination basis by citing the power crisis, instead of going for competitive bidding. "Competitive bidding hardly takes six months. Instead of waiting, the state had risked the survival of two power plants whose shelf-life is normally 25 to 30 years," Raghu said.

He said the BRS government chose to use the subcritical technology that was lying with BHEL for six years to set up the Bhadradri thermal plant. "Due to the use of old machinery and old technology, the Bhadradri plant attained the age of 15 years within two years. It will impose a Rs.9,500-crore additional burden and incur heavy losses", he explained.

The Yadadri plant was set up at Damarcherla in Nalgonda district, 260 km from the nearest coal resource. The transportation of coal cost Rs.1,600 crore per annum

He said the Bhadradri thermal plant faced a risk of inundation was it was located on the banks of Godavari, with the Polavaram project of AP located upstream.

Former JAC chairman and MLC Prof. M. Kodandaram submitted the details which he had on the PPAs to the Justice Narasimha Reddy commission on Tuesday.

Prof. Kodandaram said Chandrashekar Rao was responsible for `81,000 crore losses to the power sector.