The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Change in power policy a relief for Transco

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 28, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Change in power policy a relief for Transco

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 27. The change in the free power policy comes as a relief to the heavily strained power sector, particularly the AP Transco.

The tariff imposed on owners of more than 2.5 acres served by irrigation projects and their affluent corporate farmers is expected to serve as a deterrent against installation of large number of pumpsets and their indiscriminate use. The consumption by them is likely to come down drastically from April 1 when the new policy comes into effect, thus reducing the load on the grid.

According to a report prepared by the Transco, a large number of orchards, gardens and luxury farm-houses are maintained around Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam with free power.

Benami farms

The owners include a city MLA who talks about the poor, a business house running a power plant, an influential politician and surprisingly, many top bureaucrats in the Government and the Transco itself. Some of these farms are run under benami names or fake societies or trusts. One lakh pumpsets have been detected under this category and their owners have to pay Rs. 2 per unit now.

Insistence on installation of demand-side management (DMS) devices on all categories of pumpets for improving their efficiency is described by experts as the stepping stone to save energy and meter the agriculture sector later. These devices -- capacitors, frictionless foot-valve, plastic pipes and ISI-marked pumpsets -- are likely to save 50 per cent of the agriculture consumption which works out to 3,000 million units worth Rs. 600 crores annually.

The DMS devices will not be a burden as farmers will be asked to install capacitors and valves (both costing Rs.1,000) only by March 2006 and more costly plastic pipes and ISI pumpsets by March 2008 -- a three-year breather.

Coupled with the high voltage distribution system presently under implementation at a cost of Rs. 5,000 crores, these devices are expected to improve the quality and reliability of power supplied.

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Andhra Pradesh