New energy secy's 5-pnt programme

Principal secretary of the energy department, Dinesh Kumar, who took charge on Thursday from the outgoing secretary Suthirtha Bhattacharya, has come out with a five-point programme to strengthen the sector.

These include stepping up generation to bridge the gap between demand and supply, strengthening the transmission and distribution network, reducing transmission and distribution (T&D) losses and promoting conservation of energy.

According to an official release, the commercial operation of the sixth unit of Jurala Hydro Electric Project began on Thursday, taking its total capacity to 234 Mw.

Similarly, the sixth stage of KTPS-500 Mw, which was synchronised to the state grid in March last at an estimated cost of Rs 2,325 crore, is expected to begin commercial operation by the end of this month. This would improve the voltage profiles of Khammam, Nalgonda, Krishnna and Hyderabad districts.

APTransco is planning to reduce the T&D losses to 17.1 per cent by March 2012.