Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL), a state-owned electricity generation, transmission and distribution company, has invited expression of interests (EOIs) from interested state utilities and power buyers for sale of 500 Mw round the clock power. GUVNL proposes to sell 500 Mw of surplus over the period of five years on the basis of take or pay liability.
"The demand was lesser than what we expected at this point of time. As a result, the utility is left with surplus power," said GUVNL officials. Currently, there is demand for around 10,000 Mw power in Gujarat as against the production of around 11,000 Mw power.
However, the state officials believed that the demand for power in the market is not encouraging. They further maintained that the share of power generated from non-conventional and renewable sources was on the rise in the grid supplies. This is evident from the fact that the non-conventional energy generation is rising in the state.
As per the data provided by the Indian Wind Energy Association (IWEA), Gujarat's wind power generation capacities have grown by over 500 per cent from 338 Mw in 2006 to 2,175.5 Mw in 2011. As per take or pay liability, if a bidder fails to off take 80 per cent of the contracted quantum except open access denied by RLDC on account of constraint in CTU system only, bidder will have to pay to GUVNL at the rate of Rs 2.00 per unit for the quantum of offtake that falls short of 80 per cent of contracted quantum.
Similarly, if GUVNL fails to supply 80 per cent of contracted quantum, GUVNL will pay to bidder at the rate of Rs 2.00 per unit for the quantum of supply that falls short of 80 per cent of the contracted quantum.
Meanwhile, the industry insiders feel that the demand for power would rise during monsoon season.