AP Asks Centre For Gas

The Andhra Pradesh state government on Sunday requested the Centre to allocate 3.2 MMSCMD of natural gas on top priority, for power generation in gas-based projects, and to meet the ever-growing demand for power in the state.

The request was made by Energy Department Principal Secretary Dinesh Kumar, while addressing a conference of southern states on the implementation of priority power projects and other power-related key issues held in Hyderabad, on Sunday.

He urged the Ministry Of Power to expedite the matter with the empowered group of ministers (EGOM), and the Ministry Of Petroleum And Natural gas to meet the shortage and to facilitate power generation at all gas-based projects to their full capacity.

Kumar said, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy was very keen that the gap between demand and supply for power should be bridged to the maximum extent, and that the allocation of 3.2 MMSCMD of natural gas is crucial to the state.

He also said that CM had emphasized several times on the significance of the power sector, as the sector is crucial for employment-generation, and for all-round development of the state, mainly for agriculture and industry.

The Principal Secretary reiterated that there are 9 gas-based projects in the state with a total installed capacity of 2770 MW, for which the requirement of natural gas will be of 13 MMSCMD. Currently the gas supply is around 9.7 MMSCMD, resulting in a shortfall of 3.2 MMSCMD, which the CM wanted the centre to release on a priority basis.

He said that the CM had already addressed a letter to the Centre requesting the allocation of 9.72 MMSCMD of natural gas for the 2100 MW APGENCO project at Karimnagar.

Dinesh Kumar said that the state government had requested for the additional allocation of coal linkage for the APGENCO's thermal power plants at Sattupally (1x600 MW), Vadarevu (5X800 MW) and RTPP Kadapa (1X600 MW).

He also urged the Union Power Ministry to ensure full quantum of supply of annual coal linkage of 12.5 million tonnes from the Mahanadi coal fields to APGENCO, as against the current supply of 7.5 million tonnes.

The state Principal Secretary also requested the Union Power Secretary to restore 238 MW of power that reduced from the Central Generating Stations (CGS) share last year, and to allocate additional 500 MW from the unallocated power of CGS, to meet the unprecedented growing power demand in the peak hours (to the extent of 8-10%) in the state.

The state power utilities had achieved a peak power demand of 11,289 MW and a peak energy supply of 265 MU/per day during the month of March this year. (INN)