Hyderabad: Representatives of Telangana State have questioned the right of Andhra Pradesh power utilities to decide on the power tariff, usage and other matters related to the Krishnapatnam power plant in Nellore district and the Hinduja plant in Visakhapatnam district. Telangana officials took part in the public hearing on tariff hike proposals and the annual revenue requirement (ARRs) conducted by the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission here on Wednesday.

“Neither the two AP discoms, nor the APERC, have any authority over issues pertaining to the two plants. If a state produces power and supplies to another state, the plant comes under ‘inter-state category’. The AP government has been saying that surplus power of the plants will be sold to Telangana on priority. So, all issues should be looked into by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and not APERC. The tariff proposals and the PPA of Krishnapatnam shall be sent to the CERC,” said Kancherla Raghu, vice-president of the Telangana Electricity Employees Joint Action Committee.

He has also contended that Telangana was entitled to get power from the two gas-based power plants, GVK and Lanco, whose PPAs were going to expire this year. Mr Raghu faulted AP discoms for not taking into consideration hydel units with respect to power sharing.

The differential tariff for the Hinduja power plant (HNPCL) and NTPC-run Simhadri power plant was also discussed. “Both plants are at Visakhapatnam and use coal from the Mahanadi Coal Fields. Their expenses will remain the same. But HNPCL will be paid Rs 4.99 per unit, but for Simhadri it is Rs 3.74 per unit; a difference of Rs 1.25 per unit. This accounts for Rs 980 crore annually and HNPCL will hugely benefit if we calculate for the whole of PPA period i.e. 30 years,” said Mummareddy Venugopala Rao, a power analyst.
He said HNPCL’s contention that it had suffered equipment losses due to Hudhud was “preposterous” and its figures were highly inflated and the Commission should reject them.

He said the Hindujas’ contention that they had suffered losses of equipment due to Hudhud was preposterous and added that the figures were highly inflated and the Commission should reject them.