Shankarpalli power plant gets approval from center

Hyderabad: In a big relief to Telangana from power crisis after the state bifurcation, the power project in the state capital, which has been pending for long, has been accorded all approvals by the State and the Central governments.

The project, being taken up by APGenco will come up at Shankarpalli in RR district, 30 km away from Hyderabad. The idea to establish the gas based 1,000 MW power project was conceived in 2002 when the then CM N Chan drababu Naidu effected reforms in the power sector.

Initially, it was planned to set up a naphtha-based project, but due to non-availability of required fuel, APGenco converted it as natural gas based plant on the advice of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

APGenco officials said that in a recent communication the petroleum ministry informed the agency that it had agreed in principle to supply gas to the state owned plant.

APGenco Managing Director K Vijayanand told that the Union Power and Petroleum ministries have given all approvals to the project. The State government is waiting for a written communication from the petroleum ministry on the quantum of gas to be supplied to the project. Once it is received, APGenco would take up project without any delay.

The project requires 5 MMSCMD (Million Metric Standard Cubic Meter Per Day) gas. The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs 4,000 crore. APGenco is planning to take up the project in four phases each with 250 MW capacity. However, the phase-wise construction of the project would depend on the quantum of gas supply.

The Detailed Project Report (DPR) says the objective of setting up of the power plant in the city is to meet the increased power demand in Greater Hyderabad limits. The ongoing Metro Rail project and the mushrooming of the services sector including IT and IT-enabled services in the city widened the power demand and supply.

It is estimated that the power demand would be increased to 3,000 MW from the present 1,800 MW in the next three years once the metro rail services operated. At present , the city gets only 1,300 MW power per day as against its demand for 1,500 MW.

The APCPDCL (Central Power Distribution Company Ltd), which is the official agency to supply power to Greater Hyderabad, is struggling hard to meet the power demand the city because the discom has to meet 45 per cent of the power allocated to the agriculture sector in the four other districts (Nalgonda, Kurnool, Rangareddy and Mahabubnagar) which comes under its jurisdiction.

In view of the difficulties being faced by the CPDCL, the energy department is planning to create a separate discom for Greater Hyderabad before the completion of the project. A separate power utility for Hyderabad would help supply power from the plant directly, and avoid transmission losses in the city.