MC EXCLUSIVE Andhra Pradesh banks on cheap renewable energy and river-linking to power data centre push: Nara Lokesh

While Andhra Pradesh is leveraging cheap renewable energy and surplus Godavari water through river-linking projects to keep costs low, managing power and water efficiently will be critical to maintaining competitiveness. State IT, Electronics and HRD Minister Nara Lokesh noted that other countries, such as Ireland, have imposed moratoriums on new data centres due to resource pressures, but India should build a separate renewable-based grid for the sector instead of restricting growth.

Highlighting Andhra Pradesh’s strategy to manage power demand, Lokesh told Moneycontrol in an interview that the state is leveraging low-cost renewable energy as a competitive advantage. “If you look at it as a state, we believe low cost of energy can be a competitive advantage. So if you look at it, we've promoted renewable energies at a big scale. At a gigawatt scale, we've signed with Tatas, we've signed with Renew. GreenCo is a homegrown company and it's not just about solar and wind. We are also doing PSP pump storage projects. We are implementing battery energy storage systems, and there's always going to be a base load that has to come from thermal power,” he said.

The state is also running tenders to secure thermal power at the lowest possible rates. “With this proper mix and being efficient in the way we approach this challenge, we were able to reduce power prices by 13 percent, across the entire state. And if I'm correct, we're one of the very few states, or perhaps the only state, who has achieved this,” he added.

Harnessing Godavari waters