We have heard previously about AP State Electricity Board, what exactly is APGENCO?
As a consequence of AP Electricity Reforms ACT enacted by Government of A.P the erstwhile APSEB is unbundled in to APGENCO, APTRANSCO and DISCOMS. APGENCO is entitled to Acquire, Establish, Construct and Operate Power generating stations.

What are the types of power plants APGENCO operates?

Source	Installed Capacity(MW)
Thermal	3882.5
Hydel	3703.40
Wind	2.00

What is a Mini and Micro Hydel Plant?
Plants with capacities upto 500 kw are called micro Hydel plants and with capacities up to 50 MW as mini Hydel plants. These can be constructed at streams, canals and rivulets with drops. Today new technologies are available for the construction of water turbines for a small head of 2 - 3 meters. Operating a grid with a large number of small plants was difficult leading to frequent unstable conditions. But electronic controllers available today can solve this problem. Technically, it is now feasible to use computer control techniques to operate a grid containing a large / very large number of microhydel/mini Hydel plants.

What is Availability factor?
The ratio of available MegaWatt Hours in the reference period to the total megawatt hours that the plant is capable of generating at full load during reference period. It is caluculated as given below.

AF = Operating hours over the reference period X Generating Capacity X 100
Total hours in the reference period X Generating Capacity

What is PLF?
Capacity Utilization (or) Plant Load Factor: This is basically a performance index of a unit/station/utility. The ratio of the Electrical energy produced in the reference period to the maximum possible energy that could have been produced had the generating capacity been operating continuously at its maximum level during the reference period it is expressed in the percentage and is calculated as shown below.

PLF =Gross hourly generation over the reference period X 100
Total hours in the reference period X generating capacity
The Average PLF of APGENCO during 2004-05 is 89.7. Highest ever achieved.

What is Auxiliary Consumption?
Electricity consumed by the Unit/Station auxiliary systems for initially starting up and running.