Telangana power employees’ JAC wants Genco to construct new projects to reduce costs

TSPEJAC urges Telangana government to establish new power projects under TS-Genco for employee interests and cost savings.

hyderabad

The Telangana State Power Employees’ Joint Action Committee (TSPEJAC) on Friday requested the State government to establish new power projects under the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TS-Genco) to protect the interests of employees working for the public sector undertaking.

A delegation of the JAC met the chairman and managing director of TS-Transco and TS-Genco S.A.M. Rizvi here on Friday and submitted a representation with a plea to construct all power projects in the State under the aegis of TS-Genco.

They told the CMD that the government was planning to wind up the 62.5-megawatt capacity Ramagundam-B thermal power station of Genco and handover the 560 acres belonging to the project to Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. (SCCL) to establish an 800-MW unit there.

The JAC representatives mentioned that several new thermal power plants had been contemplated in Telangana before 2014 but the AP-Genco did not execute even one of them. These were 1×600 MW Singareni Thermal Power Station; 1×600 MW or 2×660 MW Ramagundam TPS; 1×800 MW Kakatiya Thermal Power Project-III; 3×700 MW Karimnagar Combined Cycle Gas Power Station; 1,000 MW Shankarpally Gas Power Project; and 240 MW Sammakka Sagar Hydro Electric Project at Thupakulagude on the river Godavari.

Of the State’s total requirements, TS-Genco supplying about 75 million units (MU) and central generating stations another 66 MU. The rest was being procured through short-term and long-term power purchase agreements mostly with private producers and from open market through energy exchange.

As a result, Discoms were at times purchasing power at a higher rate than that charged by Genco, so meeting the growing demand by enhancing the installed capacity would save on power purchase costs on a long-term basis.