The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Plea to protect consumer interests

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 18, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Plea to protect consumer interests

Special Correspondent

Public hearing held by APERC on Vemagiri project

HYDERABAD: Several petitioners have made a strong plea for protecting consumer interests at a public hearing held by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission on the deletion of the `alternative fuel' clause from the Power Purchase Agreement of the 370-mw Vemagiri power project. The deletion of the clause, for which promoters of the Vemagiri project and the power utilities had already arrived at a consensus, prevents the former from using costly fuel like naptha when natural gas is in short supply. The consensus followed negotiations between the developers and the committee headed by Finance Minister K. Rosaiah.

Three other gas-based projects, Konaseema, Gouthami and GVK Extension, are likely to toe the same line.

At Monday's hearing, M. Thima Reddy of Peoples' Monitoring Group, sought another hearing on the issue in view of its importance following which APERC chairman K. Swaminathan fixed July 27 for the next round.

K. Raghu, an engineer, regretted the concessions given to the project in lieu of the clause-deletion, such as extension of PPA validity for 23 years and allowing the project to sell excess capacity of 18.5 mw to third parties.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh