The State Government on Sunday announced a five-year action plan to provide reliable and quality power supply to the agriculture farmers of the state.

Christened as the ‘High Voltage Distribution System (HVDS)’, the government aims to bring down energy losses by 15 years in the next five years. The HVDS will be implemented at a cost of Rs.1154.80 Crores in a phased manner. The state government says that new system would drastically transmission and distribution losses from the present 25 per cent to around 10 per cent. The system envisages replacement of the low voltage network with a high voltage network, installation of smaller capacity distribution transformers and power supply with good voltage to pump-sets.

Once fully functional, the government would able to save around Rs 306.96 crore per annum. The project would cover 2.45 lakh agricultural pump-sets in the State.

The Centre has recently signed a loan agreement with JICA – Japan International Co-operation Agency for the implementation of the HVDS. JICA will advance a loan of Rs.988.80 crore towards implementation of the project, while the distribution companies of Andhra Pradesh will meet the remainder of expenditure of Rs. 166 crore.

Energy Secretary Dinesh Kumar will be conduct a high- level meeting on Tuesday with the top officials of power sector to discuss the implementation of HVDS. The Principal Secretary will also review transmission system availability, reduction of transmission and distribution losses, construction of new substations and lines including important associated lines from generating stations, augmentation of power transformer capacity, 7-hour supply to agriculture and replacement of sick distribution transformers within 48 hours in rural areas and 24 hours in urban areas. (INN)