The New Year is set to give some relief to people and business houses in the form of reduction in power-cuts.
The Government of Andhra Pradesh directed the power utilities and distribution companies to reduce power-cuts from Sunday.
The procurement of 250 MW of power from outside to the present 600 MW and the improvement in power generation in the State had eased the power-shortages facilitating reduction in restriction on power supply.
The Bhupalapalli 500 MW thermal unit, which was under shutdown due to technical problems for some time, had become fully-operational giving maximum relief to both power utilities and consumers.
Review meeting
At a review meeting on power supply position with officials held here on Saturday, Mr Ajay Jain, CMD of Andhra Pradesh Transmission Corporation asked the power utilities to initiate measures to minimize the inconvenience to the consumers on account of power-cuts.
There was an unusual demand for power from the farmers during kharif season compared with the rabi due to various reasons such as increased usage of electrical appliances, climate and environmental changes, etc, he said.
The Government was keen to minimize the power cuts to all categories of consumers in general and provision of a minimum of seven-hour power supply to the agricultural sector, the official said.
The power utilities in the State met the increasing power demand to the extent of 25 per cent to 30 per cent over the last year and ensured seven-hour power supply to the farmers, he added.
To meet the demand from February to May this year, power utilities had already tied up to purchase additional 1,200 MW per month.
The process was on to go procure another 2,000 MW from June 2012 for a period of four years.
The power utilities purchased costly power by investing around Rs 1,950 crore from April to November, 2011, Mr Jain said.