Power Trading Corporation?s Athena plant in Chhattisgarh has emerged the front-runner among the six companies that had placed financial bids for a tender floated by the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) for the purchase of 3,000 mw power for 25 years starting in 2014.
In a meeting here on Friday, the bid evaluation committee of the Uttar Pradesh government has accepted PTC as the L1 (lowest bidder) offer for supplying 300 mw of power at an average price of R 3.324 per unit for the next 25 years. The next bidder (L2) is Anil Dhirubhai Ambani?s Reliance Power, which has offered to sell 2,456 mw of power at an average price of R 3.702 per unit. Though Reliance has offered to sell the quantity of power that is closest to what the UPPCL requires, its price is not the lowest and hence the bid evaluation committee has decided to compare the rates with other states before finalising anything further.
Among the other bidders, Jaiprakash Power has offered 200 mw at R 3.900 a unit, Lanco has offered to supply 680 mw at R4.283 per unit, and two other Power Trading Corporation companies, KVK Nilachal Power and Ind-Bharath Power have offered 160 mw at R4.413 a unit and 200 mw at R4.810 a unit, respectively.
Speaking to FE, a senior official of the UPPCL said that as per the Government of India guidelines for procurement of long-term power through Case 1 bidding process, the UP government had invited competitive tariff-based bids under the Case -1 route, which allows it to procure power from one or more private companies irrespective of the location or technology of the power plant. Under this system, the power supplier is responsible for arranging land, water, fuel, and necessary clearances.
The Maya government?s efforts to power shop are part of its multi-pronged strategy to achieve a complete turna-round for the power-starved state. A much-criticised MoU signing blitzkrieg, with both the private and state sectors is one way of augmenting the state?s power needs while the other is procurement of power through competitive bidding process. The use of this combination is part of the government?s road map to achieve 25,000 mw power by the end of the 12th plan period. ?From the present shortfall of roughly 2,500-3,000 mw daily, in which most of the districts go without power for anything between 6-12 hours at present, Uttar Pradesh is preparing to become a power surplus state with 24 hours electricity by the end of the 12th plan period. And if we plan to see the state grow as anticipated, power is the most basic requirement,? said an official, requesting anonymity.
Apart from the long-term procurement, the state utility is also seeking competitive bids for short-term procurement of 2,000 mw power, but since all the bids received were very high, the bid evaluation committee has rejected the bids.