AP, Telangana discoms at war over non-payment of dues

Power transmission has been suspended between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana following claims of non-payment of dues to each other by the discoms of the two states.

Telangana GENCO had earlier issued a notice to Andhra Pradesh demanding the pending power dues of Rs 1,646.76 crore, while its counterpart had warned stopping of power supply if the new state failed to clear its energy bill of Rs 3,183 crore. "There is no power supply between both the states as of now. AP has to move first to settle the issue as they are the first to issue notice to us. As such we are not very eager to buy power from them as it is costlier," TS TRANSCO chairman and managing director D Prabhakar Rao told PTI.

However, there is no material impact of inter-state suspension of power supply on consumers in Andhra Pradesh as it is a power surplus state. Telangana is short of around 400 mw to meet its demand for which it has already tied up supply from Chhattisgarh.

On June 6, AP Genco wrote to the Telangana discom threatening that it would stop power supply until it clears dues of Rs 3,183 crore.In a reply to that letter, Transmission Corporation of Telangana (TS TRANSCO) issued a notice to the AP power utility threatening to ‘regulate’ power supply to the latter if pending dues of Rs 1,646.76 crore are not settled.

When contacted, AP Genco managing director K Vijayanand said they tried to reach out the Telangana discom even after issuing notice for dues, but there is no response. "They (Telangana power utilities) are saying that we owe them Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 1,676.46 crore). But that pertains to assets and liabilities of discoms. They cannot link power dues with assets and liabilities. We are ready to deduct that also from their dues. Let them pay the rest," Vijayanand told PTI.

As per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, the combined power generated in both the states is shared in about 43:57 ratio between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. On that basis AP gets about 800 mw from Telangana while it parts 1,200 mw with the new state, resulting in net excess of 400 mw of power supply to Telangana. Prabhakar Rao said Telangana are fully geared up to tackle the situation. He said as such the demand has come down and is hopeful of generation of hydel power once monsoon starts in full swing. He also said the state has already tied up with the Chhattisgarh government for supply of 1,000 mw of electricity.