The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday released a sum of Rs 2,984 crore to clear long-pending dues to solar and wind power generators, central generating stations (CGS) and state generating stations (SGS).
Of the total, Rs 2,199 crore will go to CGS and SGS while solar and wind power generators will get the balance.
With this, pending payments to renewable energy generators have been cleared up to December 2019, according to an order issued by Energy Secretary N Srikant.
The amount has been released towards payment of 25 percent losses of DISCOMs taken over for the years 2017-18 and 2018-19 under Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana Scheme (UDAY) of the Government of India, the order said.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court recently ordered that all pending payments to renewable energy companies be cleared even as the matter related to re-negotiation of power purchase agreements has been referred to the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Soon after coming to power, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government had announced that it would re-negotiate power purchase agreements (PPAs), which are made between a company that generates electricity and a power purchaser.
The YSRCP claimed that due to higher tariffs in the wind and solar PPAs, the DISCOMs (power distribution companies) were going through a financial crisis.
As the power generating firms moved the High Court, it struck down a government order (GO) which appointed a three-member expert committee to renegotiate the deals. The court then asked the firms to approach the Andhra Pradesh Regulatory Commission to resolve the issue.
There is also another ongoing row over the division of power staff between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, particularly the absorption of 655 employees who have been relieved by the former, to be absorbed by the latter.
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