YS Jagan launches 12 APTRANSCO substations, lays stone for solar power projects in Kadapa, Anantapur

AMARAVATI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday virtually launched 12 new APTRANSCO substations and laid foundation stone for 16 new sub-stations across the State. Apart from that, YS Jagan also laid the stone for 750 MW solar power project at Kadapa and 100 MW solar power project at Anantapur worth Rs 6,600 crore.

The State Government signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the HPCL for setting up solar and wind energy plants of 500 MW each and 250 MW PSP plant with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore and employment potential for 1,500 persons. Senior officials of the Energy Department and HPCL exchanged MoU copies in the presence of the Chief Minister at his camp office, Tadepalli.

The Chief Minister said that the YSRCP Government was committed to supply quality power to all regions across the State and dedicated the new substations to the service of the locals. He launched 12 sub-stations built with a cost of Rs 620 crore in Alluri Sitarama Raju, Sri Sathya Sai, Eluru, Palnadu, Nellore, Annamayya and Kadapa districts and laid foundation stone for 16 sub-stations in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli, Kakinada, East Godavari, Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema, West Godavari, Guntur, Prakasam, Nandyal and Kurnool districts were built with at a cost of Rs 2,479 crore.

The Chief Minister said that the solar power projects coming up with an investment of Rs 3,400 crore at the solar parks at Kadapa and Anantapur would provide an employment potential for over 1,700 persons. He also laid the foundation stone for enhancing the production capacity of EV scooter manufacturing utility of Avera AI Mobility Pvt Ltd’s plant at Nunna in Vijayawada from 25,000 to 1 lakh units. The enhanced production capacity would provide employment to another 200 persons, he added.

YS Jagan said that with the new sub-stations across the State, supply and transmission capacity would be upgraded and most of the power problems would be solved. People in submergible mandals like Kunavaram, Chintur, VR Puram and Etipaka would also receive quality power. The State Government had spent Rs. 1,700 crore in the initial days for enhancing the feeder capacity to supply nine-hour free power to farmers during day time, he added.

“The State Government has also signed agreement with SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) for producing 17,000 million units of solar power in the State and supplying 13,000 million units of power to agricultural sector at the rate of Rs. 2.49 per unit as against the usual average unit cost of Rs. 5.30 thereby reducing the burden of the State exchequer on free power supply to farmers,” the Chief Minister said and added that the SECI would make available 3,000 MW, 3,000 MW and 1,000 MW of solar power by September 2024, September 2025 and September 2026 respectively.

Minister for Energy, Mining and Environment Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, Chief Secretary Dr KS Jawahar Reddy and other officials were also present.