APGenco to review its stance on super critical technology

A crucial meeting to decide the fate of the first ever super critical 660-mega watt unit proposed at the Vijayawada Thermal Power Station (VTPS) is scheduled to be held on April 12, where APGenco will hold talks with Siemens, the lowest bidder for the project, to work out on lowering of capital cost.

"With Siemens quoting Rs 4,100 crore for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, which works out at Rs 6 crore per mega watt, there will not be any takers for the power generated at that cost. Obviously, the state government will not go for super critical technology if the bidder does not do something about cutting down the cost drastically," D K Panwar, chairman of APGenco, and principal secretary of energy department, told the media here on Tuesday.

According to him, APGenco has also started preparing a parallel detailed project report (DPR) for a sub-critical 500 mw or 520 mw plant in place of the super critical technology if the bidder fails to reduce the cost of the project to save any delay in its completion.

The capital cost quoted by Siemens is far higher as compared to Rs 3,365 crore estimated by APGenco. German government's KFW Bank has offered Rs 3,700 crore loan for the proposed fourth stage project of VTPS.

On the financial front, the state power utility is expected to register a profit of Rs 60 crore on a total revenue of Rs 4,282 crore after taking the total expenditure of Rs 4,222 crore into account. Genco's profits during 2003-04 stood at a mere Rs 10 crore.

In a significant achievement, the cost per unit sent out has come down to Rs 1.63 per unit (provisional) as compared to Rs 1.82 per unit during 2003-04, Panwar said.

"The likely surplus of Rs 60 crore during the last financial year was earned by limiting the expenditure over the previous year despite increase in the prices of consumables among others," he said.

APGenco has achieved the highest average plant load factor (PLF) of 89.7 per cent in the country.