The Regional Conference for the Southern Region States/ UTs was held on 23rd May in Bengaluru under the chairmanship of Shri Manohar Lal, Hon’ble Union Minister of Power and Housing & Urban Affairs. 

The meeting was also attended by Shri Shripad Naik, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy, Shri K. J. George (Minister of Energy, Karnataka), Shri Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu (Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister and Energy Minister, Telangana), Shri S. S. Sivasankar (Electricity Minister, Tamil Nadu), Shri A. Namassivayam (Electricity Minister, Puducherry) and Shri Gottipati Ravi Kumar, (Energy Minister, Andhra Pradesh) through video conferencing. 

The meeting saw the participation of the Union Power Secretary, Secretaries (Power/ Energy) of participating States/ UTs, CMDs of Central and State Power Utilities, and senior officers from the Ministry of Power.

Secretary (Power), Government of India (GoI)highlighted that it is crucial to ensure necessary power generation capacity tie-ups as per the resource adequacy plan for upto FY2035 so as to meet future power demand. It is also imperative to make necessary arrangements for development of inter-state and intra-state transmission capacities through various financing models available including Tariff Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB), Regulated Tariff Mechanism (RTM), budgetary support or monetization of existing assets. 

Further, the States should make all efforts for securing the power sector infrastructure, including the transmission grid and distribution systems, against cyber security concerns and should implement necessary cyber security protocols for the same. In addition, States to also work towards ensuring financial viability of distribution utilities.