Power capacity and Retail tarrifs will hike in 2017

     Written by : SMTV24x7 | Sun, Dec 25, 2016, 12:21 AM

Power capacity and Retail tarrifs will hike in 2017

Hyderabad, December 25 : The Power Sector of Telangana made several developements in power generation and distribution, Further improvements are going to be lined up in the next year.Particularly in the form of capacity addition, clearances for projects on hold due to environmental issues and better financial prospects, the retail supply tariff etc.

Irrespective of the two power distribution companie's plans to mop up their revenues by pegging up the retail supply tariff for 2017-18, which they are yet to submit in detail to the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) for approval, consumers are expected to get a relief not less than Rs.400 crore. This, the authorities of power utilities said, would become possible following their formal joining of the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) next month to pass on their debt to State and Central Governments.

"The amount saved in lieu of debt servicing will be passed on to the consumers indirectly as there will be relief to that extent even if the tariff is increased to some extent", a senior official stated. The TS-Genco would be adding to its installed capacity with the 800MW Unit-VII of Kothagudem Thermal Power Station and another 2,000 MW solar projects scheduled to commence generation during 2017-18.

Another 1,000 MW Chhattisgarh power, power purchase agreement for which has already been signed, is also expected to be available to the State in the new year with the Wardha-Maheshwaram 400KV transmission line scheduled to be completed in the next couple of months, the officials explained.

According to increase in Power demand,It has already crossed 150 million units (MU) a day and which is likely to go up due to higher consumption by agriculture and industrial sectors, the power utilities are all geared-up to maintain supply without cuts (load shedding) during the coming months.

"We are prepared to meet even the demand of 180 MU or about 10,000 MW with 40 to 45 MU of own generation, another 40 MU from Central Generating Stations and 35 MU from Singareni and Thermal Powertech. The balance demand will be sourced from short-term and long-term purchases", Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Genco and TS-Transco D. Prabhakar Rao explained.