TDP leader and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Payyavula Keshav has written to Energy Secretary N. Srikant requesting him to ‘clear the air’ on the 9,000 MW power procurement from the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI).
He also wanted the Energy Secretary to provide all supporting documents and decisions made relating to the power procurement.
Releasing a copy of the letter to the media on Tuesday, Mr. Keshav said there were contradictions in the statements issued by the Energy Secretary at a recent press meet. “Why does A.P., despite being an energy surplus State, want an additional capacity of more than 100% into the existing grid? The approval of the 9000MW offer made by the SECI is atrocious and imprudent,” he said.
It was also surprising to see the speed at which this proposal was received from the SECI (September 15, 2021) and was accepted in less than a day (Spetember 16, 2021). It is puzzling that the manufacturing bid has not been subscribed by any State for over 22 months. All of a sudden, the entire capacity of 9000 MW was offered urgently to A.P. by the SECI and was accepted by the government with the same urgency,” said Mr. Keshav.
The SECI had brought down the price per unit with falling trend in the prices. To the utter surprise, the Andhra Pradesh government has not even attempted to probe into this issue, he said.
‘Burden on consumers’
Although, the SECI has offered a price of ₹ 2.49 per unit along with certain incentives, the ultimate cost of the incentives has to be borne by the consumers in the State in form of true-up charges, price impact due to customs, socialisation charges, GST charges and etc., as the project is not being set up in Andhra Pradesh,” said Mr. Keshav.
