Vijayawada  :

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will commission the 5 MW Polavaram Right Canal Bund Solar Power Plant at Gollagudem village in Ungutur mandal of West Godavari district on Monday.

It is a part of the government’s endeavour to transform the State into India’s solar hub with a target of 10,000 MW generation by the year 2022.

On the occasion, Mr. Naidu wished that the milestones of AP power sector like commissioning of 800 MW supercritical boilers, promotion of solar parks in a big way, and implementation of energy efficiency measures would act as a motivation to the entire country.

According to a press release by the State Energy Conservation Mission CEO A. Chandra Sekhar Reddy, Mr. Naidu directed the Energy Department to adopt a special mechanism for getting cost-effective power generation and make efforts for establishing hybrid plants at strategic locations.

Principal Secretary (energy) Ajay Jain told the Chief Minister that the present solar capacity in the State was around 1,000 MW and expected to double by March 2017.

AP-Transco Chairman and Managing Director K. Vijayanand stated that the power utilities contemplated a total investment of nearly Rs.20,000 crore in the next five years.

The Gollagudem canal bund plant would generate about 8.06 million units of power per year. Of the project cost of Rs.37.58 crore, Rs.7.50 crore came from the Central government in the form of capital subsidy.