AP claims full power from Hinduja, Krishnapatnam

Hyderabad: Telangana will not get a single unit of power from Krishnapatnam thermal power station in Nellore and Hinduja thermal power stations in Visakhapatnam, if the Annual Revenue Requirement proposals of the AP government are accepted by that State's Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The APTransco and Discoms submitted their ARR proposals to the APERC, staking claim on the entire power to be produced by the Krishnapatnam and Hinduja power plants set to be commissioned soon.

The claim is in contrary to the directions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act which said that Telangana should be given 52 per cent of the power from the producers who entered into agreement with erstwhile combined AP.

Apart from claiming 100 per cent power allocation share of Hinduja & Krishnapatnam thermal power plants which would generate 15,581 MU at 75 per cent plant load factor, the APTransco and Discoms also sought 46.11 per cent of power allocation for all other thermal power stations in both the States as per GO 20 of 2014.

Besides, they also wanted that power allocation for APGenco & TSGenco Hydel stations be made as per their geographical location. It means that AP would take 100 per cent share in the power produced at stations located in AP, both hydel and thermal, and would also take 46 per cent of share from the power stations located in Telangana.

By demanding hydel power allocation from plants based on their geographical location, AP also wants 100 per cent power from Sileru hydel power station, which is now part of the four mandals of Khammam which had been merged into AP.

Thus, AP government would deprive Telangana its due share of power from the thermal companies by virtue of the investments it has. The Central Electricity Authority clearly stated that the shares in the power should be strictly availed as per the APRA.

Andhra Pradesh government has already been denying share to Telangana from the 800 MW Krishnapatnam TPS during its trial runs and was continuing to defer the commercial operations date with a mala fide intention.

The latest ARR proposals of AP are bound to trigger fresh row between the two States. Power sector experts alleged that AP government is taking the advantage of its alliance with the ruling BJP at the Centre.

They said that Telangana government would also claim the power availability from AP, from Krishnapatnam, Hinduja and Seileru, and would show it in its Annual Revenue Requirement proposals. This would pit both states one against another leading to intervention of Centre and the courts.