Don't burden consumers with tariff hike, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu directs power utilities in Andhra Pradesh
Also, Mr. Naidu calls for a reduction in power purchase from the open market, and bringing down the power Transmission & Distribution (T&D) losses significantly from the present 9%.
Addressing a review meeting at his camp office on Wednesday, Mr. Naidu said the T&D losses could be minimised by doing effective feeder management, and since the power consumption was expected to increase by 8.90% in the next two to three years, efforts to generate more Renewable Energy (RE) should be intensified.
Green energy generation plans should be made to meet the growing energy requirements, he added.
He exhorted the officials to transform Andhra Pradesh into a Green Energy Hub by drawing up appropriate short, medium, and long-term strategies in line with the changing global dynamics. He emphasized the need to reduce the RE production costs, and observed that effective auditing would help in improving power generation, supply, and distribution management.
The Chief Minister told the officials to adjust the power generation through constant monitoring of the weather by utilising sensors, drones, and other modern tools.
Officials informed Mr. Naidu that consumption had reached 270 Million Units (MU) in March–April this year, and projected that the demand could rise to 12,700 MW between September 2025 and March 2026. Responding, the Chief Minister said efforts should be made to ramp up production and suggested measures by power swapping to reduce purchases.
Further, Mr. Naidu said the prevailing cost of thermal power was ₹5 to ₹6 per unit, while wind power costs only ₹4.60 per unit. A.P. had the potential to generate 65 Gigawatts of wind power and there was huge scope for pumped hydropower projects in Rayalaseema, he added. Officials told Mr. Naidu that RE projects worth ₹3.19 lakh crore had been grounded since June 2024.
Mr. Naidu ordered that smart meters should not be installed in the agriculture sector and all citizen services provided by the power utilities should be made available through the WhatsApp 'Mana Mitra' platform.
He suggested that Central assistance be sought for coal procurement needed by the AP- Genco's thermal units.
Energy Minister Gottipati Ravikumar, Chief Secretary and Special CS (Energy) K. Vijayanand, and senior officials from the AP-Genco and AP-Transco took part.
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