Bid for Rajpura Thermal Plant PSEB will have a lot to answer for
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 7
Though the Punjab government has allotted the 1,320 MW thermal plant at Rajpura to Lanco Infratech, a private company that was the only bidder for this project, it will be a hard job for the state government as well as the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) to convince the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Authority on this issue. While the Punjab Cabinet has approved the project and the private company’s bid, the electricity board will have to get the nod of the regulatory authority in this regard.

Sources said Lanco’s bid to supply power at Rs 3.30 per unit to the state was very high compared to the bids offered by some other private power companies that had got the approval to set up thermal plants in Gujarat, MP, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere.

Earlier, the thermal plant at Talwandi Sabo was to supply power at Rs 2.86 per unit at the generating point. However, the Rajpura plant is to supply power at Rs 3.30 per unit, which means it will be 44 paise costlier than the Talwandi Sabo plant. If calculated in monetary terms on per unit basis, the PSEB will have to give about Rs 13,200 crore more in a period of 30 years, which is considered the life span of a thermal plant, to buy power from the Rajpura plant compared to the Talwandi Sabo plant.

Power trade circles say that Tata Power is to give power at Rs 2.26 per unit from its 4,000 MW super thermal plant at Mudra in Gujarat and Relinace’s super thermal plant of 4,000 MW at Sasan in MP is to provide power at Rs 1.19 per unit at the generating point.

When the regulatory authority compares the power supply rates of the Rajpura thermal plant with other thermal plants coming up in the private sector in the country, it would become difficult for it to approve this project. Obviously, the PSEB will also have to answer many questions in this regard.

Moreover, in case the Rajpura project with the power supply rate of Rs 3.30 per unit was approved, this rate would become a benchmark for other thermal plants such as Gidderbaha to be set up in the private sector.

Besides, the key objective of the Electricity Act 2003, which allows the setting up of thermal plants in the private sector, is to promote competition to procure power for the state utitilies. However, in the case of the Rajpura thermal plant, there was no competition among bidders and the price quoted and later approved by the Punjab Cabinet cannot be termed as competitive or lowest.