AP to ink MoU with Centre on 24x7 power

Hyderabad: In a significant move to mark Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s 100th day in office, the government will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union government for the implementation of the ‘24x7 PFA’ (Power For All) scheme, a joint initiative by the State and the Centre, on September 16.

The officials of the energy departments of AP and the Union government will sign the agreements in the presence of Naidu and Union Minister for Power Piyush Goyal at a special programme.

Disclosing this at a review meeting on the modalities for rolling out the PFA scheme, the Chief Minister said under the scheme, the government targeted achieving 9,150 MW capacity through renewable energy and realising substantial energy savings through energy efficient projects by 2018-19. He cautioned the officials against any complacency in this matter as the government saw consumer as the real boss of utilities and his utmost satisfaction was of paramount interest to the government.

“The ultimate aim of PFA is providing quality, reliable and uninterrupted power for domestic, and industrial electricity consumers, which in turn, paves way for improving the living standards of people, providing employment and overall economic development of state,” he said.

Naidu also instructed officials to make all arrangements to enter into separate MoUs with National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for 1,000 MW Solar Park in Anantapur and between APGENCO, New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of AP (MREDCAP) and Solar Energy Corporation of India for setting up 1,500 MW ultra mega solar power projects.

State Energy Secretary Ajay Jain and APGENCO Managing Director K Vijayanand informed the Chief Minister that 1,200 acres of land at Pudimadaka in Vishakhapatnam had been handed over to NTPC, which had agreed for setting up of mega thermal project of 4000 MW.