VIJAYAWADA: The Energy department has claimed that State discoms saved about `500 crore in the last six months by purchasing only cost-effective power in open market. Officials expect that the savings will improve as they are exploring more options to procure power at lower rates.According to a statement from the department on Friday, a review meeting was held to assess the progress made by power utilities in the last six months since the change of guard and the outcome of the government’s efforts to bailout the debt-ridden power utilities.
The discoms stopped purchasing high cost power after instructions from the government. “As a result, the utilities were able to purchase power at `3.38 per unit on an average in October, 2019, as against `6.56 per unit for the same period in 2018. The average power purchase costs of discoms between April and October this year remained at `4.8 per unit,” the statement said.
