Andhra faces power blues

Expresses helplessness to supply power to rabi crops beyond March.

With the power sector coming under severe strain on account of the growing demand, the Andhra Pradesh government today expressed its helplessness in supplying electricity to agriculture beyond the month of March during the ensuing rabi season.

Speaking at a video conference with district authorities from the state secretariat, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy appealed to the farmers to ensure that harvesting of rabi crops is completed by the end of March.

"Beyond March the government will not provide power to the farm sector since it cannot handle the supply-demand gap in the face of growing consumption levels. Moreover, we need to focus on domestic supply from April owing to summer and the commencement of examinations," he said.

According to the chief minister, the peak demand from mid-March is expected to touch 190 million units (mu) from 180 mu in the first half of the same month. While the rabi demand is expected to be 11 per cent higher than that in the kharif season, the power supply position becomes more precarious with the non-availability of hydel power from April onwards, he said.

Though the state government has decided to purchase about 500 Mw additional power on a daily basis to meet the peak demand during the rabi season, the response received so far from power trading companies is disappointing as they said they can supply less than 400 Mw at the rate of Rs 5-6 a unit, according to officials.

The APTransco is currently in the process of finalising the tenders for the supply of power.

The state-owned power distribution companies are expected to supply 51,000 mu of power during the current financial year, of which 14,000 mu is allocated to the agriculture sector. Over 95 per cent of the 24 lakh agriculture services receive power free of cost in the state. The supply-demand gap in the state during the peak rabi season is expected to be around 2,000 mw, according to officials.