VIJAYAWADA: AP Transco on Tuesday announced that the corporation has managed to save Rs 132 crore in the last month with the lockdown in place.
According to officials, all high cost conventional sources of energy have been kept under reserve shutdown. Bulk consumers, such as industries, railways, commercial establishments, HT consumers, function halls, malls and theatres are shut and only critical healthcare, government offices and domestic and agriculture loads are being serviced by the grid.
In a bid to ensure uninterrupted power supply, all thermal stations have been asked to stock coal for meeting exigencies for May. Currently, peak demand in the state has fallen from 11,000 megawatts (MW) to 8,500 MW and minimum demand is pegged at 6,000 MW instead of 8,000 MW during this time of the year.
All high cost conventional energy sources have been kept under reserve shutdown and these thermal stations have been asked to stock coal for meeting the exigencies.
As of date, the Genco stations have stocks that are sufficient for two to three weeks of operation. Vijayawada Thermal Power Station (VTPS) has a buffer for 18.93 days, Rayalaseema Thermal Power Station (RTPP) for 27.65 days and Krishnapatnam units have stocked coal for the next 14 days.
Officials said continuous availability of coal, fall in international gas and oil prices have ensured adequate supply while demand is hovering at 65 to 70% of the usual peak loads experienced in summer.
“After exhausting all must run stations like hydel, wind, solar and nuclear, central generating stations (CGS) and gas stations are operated as per the grid demand and strictly as per the merit order and retail supply tariff orders as approved by the APERC,” joint managing director of AP Transco, KVN Chakradhar Babu stated.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
