Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the power distribution companies (Discoms) to reduce their expenditure through all possible means, especially by buying power from companies offering low unit costs. By doing so, they could mitigate the losses, he said, suggesting that the concentration should be on hydro reverse pumping projects.
He pointed out that the cost of power purchased during the TDP regime pushed the Genco and Discoms into the red, and called for efforts to achieve a turnaround in five years.
Speaking at a review meeting on the functioning of the Energy Department on Wednesday at his camp office on Wednesday, Mr. Jagan said the focus should be on solar power plants of 10,000 MW capacity proposed to be set up by the government and that solar and wind power companies offering power at lesser cost should be encouraged so that the pressure on Discoms could be eased.
He instructed the officials to ensure that quality coal was supplied to the thermal power plants of Genco by getting the quality of the coal certified periodically by a third party.
Skill development
The Chief Minister said training should be given to the power sector staff in top class training centres to equip them with the skills which were required for improving operational efficiencies of the power plants and wanted steps for speedy execution of the new thermal units at Krishnapatnam and Dr. Narla Tatarao Thermal Power Station.
The A.P. power utilities should be in a position to sell power in other States, for which a policy needs to be framed and necessary steps taken, he said and added that there should be no scope for corruption.
Principal Advisor to CM Ajeya Kallam, Energy Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, Secretary N. Srikant, Principal Secretary S.S. Rawat, Genco MD B. Sreedhar and Transco Joint MD K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu was among those present.
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