Telangana plans hydro power plant in Himachal Pradesh; draft readied
The Telangana government is planning to set up a hydro power generation plant in Himachal Pradesh, a State that has enormous potential in this sector. The government wants to invest in it to get cheaper power and meet the everincreasing demand.
Sources said that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had discussed the proposal with Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in Delhi recently. The government may partner with private firms to reduce investment burden, and the power produced there will be only supplied to Telangana.
The government also planned to prepare a new policy on electricity generation and procurement, whose draft copy is being readied. It plans to introduce the same in the next Assembly session and before that seek suggestions from experts and various organisations.
Sources said that the policy will be aimed at meeting the electricity requirements for the next seven years (up to 2032).
However, the envisaged power policy will not put too much burden on consumers. The government is expected to invite and enter into agreements with private companies that show interest to produce and supply large amounts of renewable electricity.
Officials privy to the policy say that NTPC’s 4,000 MW, which was supposed to be for Telangana as per the Redistribution Act, has not been fully made available even after 10 years. This created burden on the Discoms. Only 1,600 MW plant has been made available so far, and it will take another five years to complete the second phase of the 2,400 MW plant, which was started recently.
At present, NTPC electricity rate is ₹5.90 per unit that will go up to ₹8-₹9 once it is completed. The Yadadri Thermal Power Plant (YTPP) is still not completed. The estimated investment cost of ₹6 crore per unit of production has already touched ₹10 crore.
In this scenario, the government is planning to back off from the second phase of NTPC power contract as power is available at a lower rate than in the open market.
New plans are being prepared to promote solar power, wind power, pumped storage and battery storage power. The government has chosen to promote solar power on a large scale.