VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government has withdrawn all restrictions on the power supply to industries. Energy minister Peddireddy Ramachandra said the APERC has approved the proposal from Discoms to withdraw the restrictions to industries. Orders have been issued to this effect.
He said the utilities have restored 24 x7 power supply to industries.
At a teleconference with power utilities on Wednesday, he recalled the state government has already lifted the power holiday to industries on May 9 and restored 70 per cent supply to continuous process industries.
Minister Ramachandra said chief minister Jagan Reddy is very keen on providing reliable and quality power supply to industries and directed the power utilities the other day to lift all restrictions on industries.
He said that as per the directions of the chief minister, the utilities put maximum efforts to restore the normalcy. Representatives of industries have thanked the government for doing this even as the problem of coal non-availability persisted in the country.
The minister said APGENCO and APPDCL have issued tenders to import 31 lakh metric tonnes of coal to ensure 24x7 power supply to both domestic consumers and industries and ensure day-time supply to the agriculture sector.
The CM has also reviewed power supply positions in the state frequently and appealed to the Union Government to provide adequate coal supply to the thermal plants in AP.
The government had also entered into an MoU with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to procure 7000MW at a rate of Rs 2.49 per unit to ensure power supply to the agriculture sector for the next 25 years, he said.
He said the government is also taking steps to establish integrated pumped hydro storage power plants with capacity of 33240MW to ensure adequate power supply in the state.
