The Andhra Pradesh government is contemplating starting execution of the Andhra Pradesh Rural High Voltage Distribution System (APR-HVDS) project Phase-II by March 2012. To achieve this, the government has directed the discoms to complete the tendering process of the project and award the contract agreements by January.
The project, which involves an investment of Rs 1,154.80 crore, will pave the way for reduction in energy loss, theft of energy, peak power loss and transformer failure in particular to the tune of over Rs 306 crore a year with a payback period three-and-a-half years.
The government has also suggested the top officials of power utilities to get feedback from farmers on the benefits and impact of the HVDS project, which has already been implemented for 697,000 pump-sets. Further, the government has instructed all the discoms to submit a comprehensive report on the already completed Phase-I of the HVDS project and voltage profiles and reduction of loss.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) has sanctioned a loan assistance to an extent of 85 per cent of the project cost (Rs 988.80 crore) on the Overseas Development Agency (ODA) package at a concessional rate of interest of 0.65 per cent. The repayment period would be 40 years, including a grace period of 10 years.
The discoms of AP will meet the remaining expenditure of Rs 166 crore through the annual budget provision of the state government. The project, to be implemented over five years in 16 districts, is expected to bring down energy losses from the estimated 25 per cent to around 20 per cent in the agricultural sector.
In a release on Sunday, the state energy coordination cell said the system envisaged replacement of the low-voltage network with good-voltage to pump-sets and this system was best suited to meet the scattered low-density loads observed in rural areas of the state.