Andhra Pradesh stands to get an incremental benefit of nearly ₹3,495 crore due to the Greenko reverse pumping project, Principal Adviser to the Chief Minister Ajeya Kallam has said.
GED charge
Mr. Kallam said the government decided to levy a Green Energy Development (GED) charge of ₹1 lakh per year per MW on the wind and solar component, ₹1 lakh per year per MW on the pumped storage component for the first 25 years and ₹2 lakh per year per MW from then onwards for the remaining operating life of the project.
This itself would provide a benefit of ₹32.30 crore per annum. The absolute gain from the levy of the Green Energy Development charge is ₹3,375 crore.
Stating that the government had to bear more compensation to land owners, Mr. Kallam said the government had estimated that 4,766.28 acres of land would need to be acquired for the project.
“The land compensation has been doubled from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh during the last one year, which means the government has to bear an additional burden of ₹119.16 crore,” he said.
The pumped storage project is similar to a hydro electric project, and there are some projects in the world that have surpassed 100 years.
“Considering the operating lives of the solar, wind and pumped storage projects, the absolute gain to the State exchequer will be close to ₹3,375 crore. The TDP government had proposed to recover a one-time amount of ₹119.16 crore,’’ he said.
He also said the government had ensured an annual recurring benefit of 27% on the total one-time amount, while the previous government proposed a one-time recovery.
