Get ready to face another bout of power shock: AP Minister
As the country is expecting another bout of power shortage in July- August, the AP Power utilities should formulate a concrete plan to address the challenge and continue to ensure 24x7 quality and reliable power supply in the State, said Minister for Energy Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy said on Sunday.
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Vijayawada: As the country is expecting another bout of power shortage in July- August, the AP Power utilities should formulate a concrete plan to address the challenge and continue to ensure 24x7 quality and reliable power supply in the State, said Minister for Energy Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy said on Sunday.
He also advised the power utilities to focus on expediting the enhancing installation capacity of green energy which can be a better alternative to the thermal based power generation in the State to help in making AP power sector environment-friendly.
Addressing in a teleconference with AP Power utilities on the occasion of World Environment Day, the
Minister said that there is a lot of uncertainty on the increase of coal stocks at thermal stations as the onset of
the south west monsoon may hamper mining and transportation in the country. The thermal
power plants are unable to address a minor spike in power demand due to the severe shortage of coal across the country.
At the same time, it is predicted that the country will see a peak power demand of 214 GW in August as per the report of Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA). If the thermal stations fail in increasing adequate coal stock before monsoon, the country may face another power shortage in July- August this year as per the report of an independent research organisation.
Even as India had a capacity of mining over 1,500 million tonne of coal last year, the total production was
only 777 million tonne. The Ministry of Power has recently communicated to the States that coal transportation needs to be improved for the next two years and advised to import 10 per cent of coal of total utilisation. "This will be the challenge to AP power utilities to procure coal and ensure reliable power supply to the consumers as the country is heading towards another power shortage in July-August. The utilities should put all out efforts to be ready to address this challenge at any cost and reach the expectations of the State Government and electricity consumers in the coming months.
