Chhattisgarh offers to power Telangana for 20 yrs
HYDERABAD: Chhattisgarh has agreed to sell 1,000 MW to Telangana at a reasonable price. However, it will be a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) of 20 years and will take at least two years for actual supply to materialise.
Telangana officials have discussed the availability of power in Chhattisgarh and managed to get initial consent from the State.
'Commercial aspects need to be discussed further,' said official sources. Transmission lines have to be laid from Wardha in Maharashtra to Dichpally in Telangana - about 270 km - before power can be supplied.
As the country has one grid now, the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd will have to include the new route from Wardha to Dichpally in its plans and lay the lines accordingly.
Otherwise, Chhattisgarh and Telangana governments can jointly lay the lines or invite private companies for the purpose. Though there the Central Electricity Act stipulates that a State should purchase power through open bidding, earlier provisions in the same law on PPAs between States have not yet been deleted.
Hence, the Telangana government is mulling this option. 'Purchasing power from Chhattisgarh will be a long-term plan. We have power shortage of 200 MW per day. Once, the Krishnapatnam and Hinduja power plants start commercial operations, Telangana will be benefited,' sources in energy department said.
Meanwhile, a fresh row is brewing between Andhra and Telangana over power-sharing. Telangana officials have lodged a complaint with the Centre accusing AP of failing to furnish information on power generated at the Sileru power plant.
'We are giving information about inflows and power generation at the Nagarjuna Sagar project to the AP government. But, we are not receiving any information from the AP government on Sileru,' an official said.
'If we do not know the flow of energy in the grid, it will lead to several complications,' he pointed out. Apart from PPAs, the Sileru issue will be raised by Telangana at the meeting convened by a Central government panel, most likely on July 14.
News Posted: 4 July, 2014
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