State Spent Rs. 28,580 Crores On Buying Power So Far

The Telangana government has purchased 48,406 million units of power at Rs. 20,580 crores during the last four years to meet the power needs of the state.

This was disclosed in the Assembly during Question Hour by Minister for Energy G Jagadish Reddy.

The minister said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was quite particular that the farmers in the state should not suffer for lack of power, and hence the government had to go in for purchase of the same from non-government power production organizations like Sembcorp Energy India Ltd and Solar Developers.

The minister did not agree to the charge by the BJP members that the rate at which the power purchased was high when compared to prices being paid by other states. He pointed out that the government needed to follow the guidelines of the central government's energy ministry in the purchase of power through open tenders. He also pointed out that the power rates of central agencies like NTPC were higher than those of the private organizations.

Reddy also said that the 24-hour power supply to the people as also the free 24-hour power supply to the farmers was being paid for entirely by the state at its own expenditure, and that there was no contribution from the central government.

Reddy also refuted the claim of the members that the power distribution losses were heavy in the state. The distribution losses in Telangana DISCOMs upto January 18, 2018, were a mere 10.03%, down from 23.30%, he said. The government was taking all the required measures to reduce the losses by keenly monitoring the DISCOMs, he added.

Earlier BJP members G Kishan Reddy, K Laxman and Ramchandra Reddy expressed concern about irregularities in the purchase of solar energy by paying high rates for power from Chathisgarh, and also the need for purchasing solar energy at higher rates.

Replying to another question, Jagadish Reddy said that the state grid had seen a peak demand of 10,284 MW on 8-3-2018, when compared to the peak demand in 2014 of 5,661 MW on 6-6-2014.

He asserted that at present no power cuts were being imposed in the state. He also clarified that there was no plan of increasing power charges.