AP bets big on renewable energy

Andhra Pradesh, which is leading in renewable energy generation in the country, has added as much as 5,000 MW of installed capacity in the past three years after the division of the State in 2014, according to Ajay Jain, the Principal Secretary, Energy.

He was delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of the two-day ‘Energizing South 2017’ summit, which began here on Friday.

CII summit It was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry. The theme of the conference was “Economic growth: Smart, reliable and sustainable power.”

Jain said the State was leading in solar power generation, with a 1,000 MW solar park established in Kurnool district. “It can now safely be said that AP is a energy-secure state. In fact, the country as a whole is now more energy-secure than ever, with the increase in power generation through renewable sources,” he said.

“The country as a whole, and AP in particular, has now moved to a power-surplus situation, even though the per capita energy consumption is still low and even now there are households in many villages in the country which have no power connection. However, all the villages and towns in AP have been electrified and all households in the State have power connection,” he said.

“In the power sector, four As are important – availability of power, accessibility, affordability and accountability. All the four have to be taken care of. Now, with plenty of power, the prime issue is pricing. The AP government has promised that there would not be any more hike in power tariff,” Jain added.

Kamalakar Babu, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of AP, said the Centre had set the target of 175 GW (100 GW of solar power, 60 GW of wind power, and 15 GW from hydel and other sources) by 2021-22.

“Andhra Pradesh’s generation target is 10,000 MW of renewable energy by 2018 and 18,000 MW by 2021-22. There is still untapped potential in the State,” he said.

S Chandrasekhar, chairman of the conference, gave an overview of the power situation in the country. K Venugopal, co-chairman, of the Power Sub-committee of the CII, South, said electric vehicles would rescue the power sector, as they would create the necessary demand.

JSRK Prasad, Chairman of CII-AP, and Amit Kumar of Pricewaterhouse Coopers also spoke.