With no dues, decks cleared for AP to buy power from exchanges

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday said it owed no money to the power generators for electricity purchased through the power exchanges and, accordingly, got the ban imposed by POSOCO (Power System Operation Corporation) on trading lifted.

Special Chief Secretary (energy) K Vijayanand said in a release that the relevant information was provided to the PRAAPTI portal authorities based on which the restriction on short-term access to electricity markets has been removed.

From midnight of August 18-19, the AP Power Distribution Companies (discoms) have re-started trading activity on electricity exchange, Vijayanand said.

POSOCO, a Central government enterprise, has asked three power exchanges — IEX, PXIL and HPX — to restrict electricity trading by 27 discoms in 13 States having outstanding dues towards gencos.

Andhra was listed as one of the States that had an outstanding amount of Rs 412 crore to the gencos.

The Special Chief Secretary said a sum of Rs 17,074.90 crore was covered under the late payment surcharge (LPS) scheme and all generator dues were liquidated up to May 30.

Financial institutions like REC and PFC have been clearing the dues to power generators in 12 instalments under the LPS scheme. The first instalment of Rs 1,407 crore was paid on August 5, but the PRAAPTI portal showed the dues as Rs 412 crore as on August 18, he said.

The portal authorities were informed about the reconciliation of dues and, accordingly, the restriction on short-term access to electricity markets has been removed, Vijayanand added. He said the State met a demand of 211 million units of power on August 18 and necessary steps have been taken to ensure uninterrupted power supply.