The NDA government at the Centre seems to be extremely unhappy with the decision of the YSR Congress party government headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to review the power purchase agreements signed by the previous Telugu Desam Party government on solar and wind power producers.
It was evident from the way central power producers National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) stayed away from the meeting called by cabinet sub-committee constituted by Jagan to review the power purchase agreements.
The sub-committee comprising finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy and other ministers P Anil Kumar Yadav, Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy and Mekapati Gautam Reddy, besides principal advisor to chief minister Ajeya Kallam held a meeting in Amaravati on Monday to review the PPAs.
Apparently, the Centre was not happy with the way Jagan ignored the letter written by Union minister for power and non-conventional energy R K Singh, besides energy secretary Anand Kumar.
The Union minister expressed the view that any revision of PPAs would result in stoppage of flow of investments into the state in the energy sector and that the power purchase costs were highly competitive.
However, Jagan decided to go ahead with the review of PPAs and called for all the stakeholders for negotiations.
He even announced that if the solar and wind power producers to do not reduce the rates, he would cancel the agreements and call for fresh tenders.
It remains to be seen what Jagan would do now, since the Central power agencies have decided to boycott the PPA review meetings.
