AP govt plans Rs 1,154-crore scheme for HVDS

The Andhra Pradesh government, which is determined to provide seven hours of free power supply to over 3 million agricultural pump sets, on Sunday announced a five-year action plan to provide much more reliable and quality power supply to the agriculture farmers of the state.

As part of the plan, the state energy department will implement a high-voltage distribution system (HVDS) in a phased-manner at a cost of Rs 1,154 crore.

Implementation of the HVDS is expected to bring down the energy losses in supply of power to agricultural services from the estimated 25 per cent to around 10 per cent. The system envisages replacement of the low-voltage network with a high-voltage network, installation of smaller capacity distribution transformers and power supply with good voltage to pump sets, according to a state government press release.

The Centre has concluded a loan agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the implementation of the HVDS. JICA will advance a loan of Rs 988.80 crore, while the distribution companies of Andhra Pradesh will meet the remaining expenditure of Rs 166 crore. The project will cover 245,000 agricultural pump sets in the state.

Under the ongoing schemes, the AP power utilities have provided quality and reliable power to farmers by covering 689,000 agricultural pump sets to a large extent under the HVDS scheme.

In view of the agreement concluded between the governments of Japan and India, the state government has directed the power utilities of APTransco and discoms to adhere to the time schedules as per the agreement, the release added.