FAR-FETCHED? PSPCL lists out upcoming projects in meeting with industrialists
Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) has allotted a 1,350-MW coal-based power project to diversified business entity Indiabulls with a capital outlay of nearly Rs 7,000 crore.

This was stated by PSPCL CMD K.D. Choudhry while assuring industrialists during an interaction at PHD Chamber here that the state shall become power surplus by 2013.

“The coal-based power project has been allotted to Indiabulls, which will be set up in Mansa district of the state,“ Choudhry told mediapersons. PSPCL would be signing an MoU with Indiabulls within a week for setting up a power project in the state. The project will be set up in a phased manner, which would give boost to power generation in Punjab.

“In the first phase, the company will set up two units of 270 MW each and thereafter, three units of 270 MW will be established,“ he said. According to Choudhry, the per MW cost of setting up a power plant stands at Rs 5-5.5 crore, which would estimate to about Rs 7,000 crore for the 1,350-MW project.

The project has been proposed at Bhupli village in Mansa and will be spread over 600 acres of land. “Since this project is to be carried out by the company itself, we (PSPCL) will not be acquiring land for it. But if they request us to do so then we will do it,“ Choudhry said.

But PSPCL has allotted the project to Indiabulls without carrying out competitive bidding. “The project is allotted as per our new power generation policy, which does not require a bidding process,“ he said.

Giving details of the power generation policy, he said the first project to come up was at Goindwal, which is to be commissioned in November 2010 and after three months, second unit would be commissioned.

Another project, he said, is Talwandi Sabo, the first unit of which would be commissioned in October 2012. The Rajpura project, which has three units of 700 MW each shall be commissioned by early 2014.

For the Gidderbaha project, having four units of 660 MW each, a notification for land acquisition has already been issued.

Regarding allocation of coal mine, Choudhry said the Prime Minister had already written to the Coal Ministry to allocate one to Punjab.

On the power saving plans of PSPCL, he said transmission and distribution losses, “need to be tackled, though these losses in the state were 20 per cent less than the national average“.

The major area of concern, he said, was the theft of power.
He mentioned that Powercom is working towards shifting the meters outside the premises and also providing approximately 1.92 crore CFLs to domestic consumers. He said the same shall be provided at the cost of as low as Rs 15.

Choudhry said efforts were on to save peak demand to 2,500 MW. “HPDS on tubewells shall save 100 MW, capacitors in rural stations would save 100 MW.
With these efforts, he said, 3 per cent losses would be reduced. Efforts are also on to shift from low-voltage system to high-voltage one.

The government is planning to have a plant at pit-head mine.