After having landed itself in a lot of controversy, Lanco Kondapalli?s Anpara C project, in Sonebhadra, may finally get the green signal from the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The regulator, which is hearing the case, has to decide on a petition challenging the decision to change the capacity of the project from 1000 mw to 1200mw.
The company, which had sought and received the state government?s permission to change the project specifications after winning the bid from 2x500mw capacity to 2x600mw, had landed itself in trouble when a petition challenging the change in capacity was filed by Samajwadi Party MLA Arvind Singh Gope.
Other competitors like Reliance Power and Essar Power, which had also bid for the project and lost, had objected to it, stating that the company as well as the state government cannot change the basic specifications of the bid.
It may be mentioned that Lanco had won the bid by quoting the lowest tariff of Rs 1.91/unit and has also signed a power purchase agreement with the UP Government.
In a hearing which continued till late on Monday night, lawyers of Gope, Lanco, Reliance Power, UPPCL and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam put forth their arguements in the case. Gope argued that Lanco had won the competitive bidding for a 2×500 mw project and other companies, too, had quoted their bids for these specifications. However, now that the developer wants to change the specifications after winning the bid, it would be unfair to the other bidders.
Speaking to FE, UPERC chairman Bijoy Kumar said that the hearings are now over and the commission will now take a decision on whether the case is at all admissible or not. ?The commission has to take a decision as to weather the petitioner has any locus standi to file the petition.
The Supreme Court judgements on similar issues have been cited and now we have to take a call on whether the petition is to be dismissed or accepted. We are studying the case in detail and would issue an order in the interest of the state, within a few days,? he said.
In his petition to the power regulator, the petitioner, has sought the quashing of the award of contract to Lanco and had also asked the regulator to issue directions to invite fresh bids for the revised capacity or alternatively, direct Lanco to reduce the tariff by 20 per cent.
However, according to insiders in the power sector, before giving its judgement, the commission will also deliberate on the acute power scenario in the state.
?Taking into account the fact that power would be available to the state at Rs 1.91/unit in about three years? time, the commission may well agree to let the developer increase the capacity in the larger interest of the state. After all, the state is set to get an increased 200mw of power once the project is complete. With this view, there is a strong possibility that the commission may well decide to dismiss the petition,? said a senior official of the energy department.
The UP government has cleared the decks for the early implementation of the Anpara C project, the first thermal power project to be awarded on tariff-based competitive bidding, in April 2005 and the letter of acceptance issued to the company in September, 2006. The company is required to complete the project by 2010.