New power plants will burden people

​Hyderabad: Telangana JAC leaderRaghu on Monday said the proposed power plants by the State government would impose huge burden on people and asked it to reconsider its policies, including cancellation of power purchase agreement with the Chhattisgarh government.

He was speaking after releasing his book “What is happening in the Energy Sector in Telangana, an analysis of two years of developments” here at Press Club.

Raghu elaborated his views on the proposed Manuguru (Bhadradri) Thermal Power Project (1080 X2), which, he said, was going to be a burden on the government. The government was proposing to build four units, each 270 MW capacity. Many States had shut power projects below 500 MW because the costs were high and they caused pollution.

He further said the Damaracharla Power Plant would impose an additional burden of Rs 3,000 crore on the people because there was no availability of coal in nearby areas. “Projects these days are taken up as pithead projects (nearer to the coal blocks).

Instead of Damaracharla, the project can be taken up at Ramagundam where there is availability of coal and it would save hundreds of crores of rupees,” he said.

He said the Manuguru plant was also constructed far away from the coal blocks and coal was to be imported from Indonesia. This is a subcritical project and it would impose a burden of Rs 400 crore a year. He said the production cost would be Rs 4 a unit and addition of transportation cost would take it to more than Rs 5 a unit, he said.

He urged the government to cancel the agreement with Chhattisgarh government, stating that it would be a costly affair. The Chhattisgarh Electricity Regulatory Commission had fixed the price at Rs 4 a unit. The cost of laying lines and other expenses were to be borne by the State government,

which would take the price per unit from Rs 5 to Rs 6, which would ultimately result in an additional burden of Rs 750 to Rs 1,000 crore on the people.

“If power is available at a lower price in open market where is the need to purchase power at a higher rate from Chhattisgarh government” asked Raghu.

Raghu was also critical of the enhancement of power tariff, stating that this would have an adverse effect. “As per the new policy, industries can purchase power in open source if they can. The Indian Railways have stated that they would go for an open source, and if such a thing happens, the Northern Power Distribution Corporation Limited would collapse.

Today, the rate in www.vidyutpravah.com is Rs 2.35 a unit and if industries find government power costly, they would go in for open market,” said Raghu.

He said the government had removed telescopic method of billing in the new tariff announced recently. Even one single unit consumed more would result in a burden of Rs 400 on a consumers, he said and demanded that the government remove the non-telescopic billing procedure. “Increasing of tariff will have adverse affect on the Discoms,” he said.

Raghu also suggested that the government cancel power agreements with AP. “What is the need to purchase power at Rs 10 a unit from Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant? Telangana State government says it does not want power from AP, and AP says it will not sell to Telangana. Two States can talk and settle the issue,” said Raghu.