The Andhra Pradesh government has approved the proposal to install 10 GW mega solar power project for the welfare of farmers. The project will provide nine hours of consecutive power supply to farmers during the daytime, besides establishing an Integrated Renewable Energy Project (IREP).
In a statement, Perni Venkataramaiah, Minister of Information and Public Relations stated that as part of the IREP, 550 MW of wind power, 1200 MW of hydropower, and 1000 MW of solar power would be generated.
The State government would be earning a revenue of Rs 32 crores under the Green Energy Development Charge (GEDC), it stated.
It added that the charge has been instituted to encourage state governments to push for more renewable energy projects.
In February 2020, the Andhra Pradesh government had announced that it was planning to develop 10 GW of solar power projects as a permanent solution to supply free power to the farmers in the state.
The government had already issued an order for installing the Andhra Pradesh Green Energy Corporation as a subsidiary of the Power Generation Corporation of Andhra Pradesh to erect the 10,000 MW solar power plants.
Recently, Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) passed an order in concern with granting reliefs claimed by five petitioners against Andhra Pradesh Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd. (APSPDCL), Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEPDCL) and The Chief Engineer / IPC. The commission orders original Petitions to dismiss without costs. Challa Gunaranjan learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that respondents have neither issued any bills nor the petitioners made payments and that unilaterally withholding all the amounts from out of the bills payable to the petitioners does not fall under the embargo created by the Commission in the Tariff Order for FY 2019-20. This Commission concluded by stating that “This Commission is not inclined to grant the reliefs claimed and accordingly these Original Petitions are dismissed without cost”.
