Largest pvt power project on Sutlej
Prabhjit Singh [email protected]
KARCHAM (KINNAUR):

BIG LEAP Jaypee's 1,000-MW venture in Kinnaur generating 250 MW already; Punjab remains deprived of benefit over tariff issue
The hopes were high, as the fleet of engineers and experts from as far as Canada, smiled to convey -the 1,000-MW Karcham Wangtoo Hydroelectric Project would be commissioned by midAugust. But Punjab's hopes to get the scheduled 200 MW from the project have got stuck in legal wrangles.

One of the four units, each with a capacity of 250 MW, has already been commissioned with more than 100% efficiency, and the three other turbine units will start generating 250 MW each by August 15, two months ahead of the target.

The R 6,900-crore mega project is likely to be inaugurated on August 15. With this, the Jaypee Group of Industries will become the country's first private firm to set up its own largest-ever hydel project in the country, on the Sultej at Karcham.

The reservoir stood at an hour's drive downstream from the picturesque Sangla valley in Kinnaur district.

Though 12% of the total generation would be transmitted to Himachal as royalty, Punjab's hopes have so far been dashed to get 200 MW from this project. The reason -the Jaypee group had backtracked from a power purchase agreement (PPA), according to which Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan were supposed to get power at the rate of R 2.50 per unit.

Jaypee Karcham Hydro Corporation Ltd (JKHCL) senior general manager DP Goel told HT that the company was supplying power at the rate of at least R3.35 per unit to the Northern Grid and it was the Power Trading Corporation that would be regulating the pricing as well as transmission to the buyers.

It is learnt that the Power Trading Corporation has moved the Supreme Court to challenge the quashing of the PPA with Punjab as well as Haryana following an arbitration in favour of the JKHCL.

Besides 12% share to HP as royalty for 20 years and 18% after that, the company would be selling the power to any private party or states -“whoever would be paying more,“ Goel said. The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, on the other hand, was an unhappy lot as the erstwhile PPA signed years ago with the JKHCL at the rate of R 2.50 per unit could not materialise.

The project, once fully operational, would annually generate 4,368 million units, Goel said.

A 217-km-long transmission system has been laid from the power house at Wangtoo to Abdullahpur (Yamunanagar) in Haryana for power supply to the Northern Grid.

The JKHCL plans to generate 20% more power than the original capacity during the peak period (May to September), a senior expert at the project said.