Eastern Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh Limited (APEPDCL) has developed a customised software, which displays details of feeder-wise agricultural supply position on its website for ensuring power supply to the agri sector.
The customised software is part of the five-point programme to strictly ensure seven-hour power supply to the farming community without any deviation to save the standing crops during the kharif season as the agricultural operations are in full swing, said Dinesh Kumar, principal secretary, state energy department.
In a letter written to APTransco to review the general power supply position and issue instructions to discoms, Kumar said, “The government has been supporting the utilities by providing a huge subsidy of Rs 5,530 crore (Rs 1,908 crore for domestic and the remaining exclusively for free power) for the current financial year, as against Rs 4,200-crore subsidy last year. It is the top-most priority of the government to implement the seven-hour supply to the agri sector.”
According to Hiralal Samariya, chairman and managing director of APTransco, who would discuss the issue with top officials of the sector on Monday, the objective of the power utilities is to make all-out efforts to protect the standing crops in kharif for which the utilities have decided the five-point programme.
Directing discoms to use the latest software, he said discoms had sufficient rolling stock of distribution transformers (DTRs) to replace failed DTRs within the stipulated time (48 hours in rural areas without causing any inconvenience and financial burden to the customers).
Discoms should ensure that the global positioning system (GPS) software is installed for tracking the movement of department vehicles for transportation of transformers and to avoid any scope of misuse, he added.
Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of agriculture services in the country next to Maharashtra. The total number of agri pumpsets in the state have been increased to over three mill units, as compared with 2.59 million in 2007-08 with an increase of 18.39 per cent for the past five years, according to a government press release on Sunday.
