Chief Minister announces measures to tide over crisis Faced with flak from all quarters over the government’s handling of the energy crisis, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said that the State had sought an additional 500 MW of power from the central power generation stations in the southern region. The government had also placed a request for allocation of as much power as possible from the un-allotted quota of 300 MW from the Kalpakkam atomic power station and 75 MW from Neyveli Lignite Corporation, both in Tamil Nadu, he said. Announcing a slew of measures to tide over the power crisis, he declared that the government had decided in principle to do away with the existing electricity duty on captive power generation units in order to provide relief to the beleaguered industry. This proposal would be placed before the Cabinet for formal approval. Waiver Mr. Reddy also announced waiver of wheeling charges on transmission cost if the industry generated power by procuring RLNG and naphtha and also on captive generation by solar and wind power plants. Value Added Tax (VAT) on diesel used for power generation would also be reimbursed, he said. Attributing the aggravation of power shortage to the unforeseen decline in hydel power generation due to paucity of rains, the Chief Minister said at a media conference here that the government was firm on providing seven hours power supply to the farm sector. Measures would be taken to supply it in two spells to prevent tripping. A shortfall of 29 million units of hydel power per day and 19 mu of gas-based power at present compared to last year also contributed to the crisis. Against the demand of 260 mu a day, only 210 mu was being generated from various sources, he said. Noting that the per capita consumption of power had gone up from 604 units a year in 2005-06 to 1,050 units now, he said conservation of power was the need of the hour and should be taken up on campaign mode by government departments and public. Outlining mid-term plans to ease the demand-supply gap, he said the RLNG floating storage terminal on the east coast would be ready by December 2013 making procurement of RLNG for gas-based power plants cheaper. The enhanced grid connectivity would be completed by Power Grid Corporation next year.