HPC on stressed power plants to meet stakeholders from procuring states

The committee has been tasked to look at reviving stressed power plants of APL, EPGL and CGPL

A three-member high powered committee (HPC) set up by the Gujarat government will look at reviving the stressed power plants in the state. The committee is set to hold a meeting in Delhi on Sunday with stakeholders from the procurer states. Apart from Gujarat, these procurer states include Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.

Headed by former Supreme Court justice R K Agrawal, the committee has S S Mundra, former deputy governor of RBI, and Pramod Deo, former chairman of CERC as its members. The HPC is expected to meet representatives of state distribution companies that have signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) and head of energy departments of these states.

According to state government sources, the meeting is being held with an aim to understand stakeholders' views over repercussions due to power shortage arising out of the discontinued supply by the power plants.

"The committee wants to understand what are our thoughts towards the project and the repercussions from the shortage arising out of it. The committee also wants to understand what will be the impact on power requirement, pricing and influence on the short term open market in the wake of discontinued supply from these plants," said a senior state government official.

The committee has been tasked to look at reviving stressed power plants of Adani Power Ltd (APL), Essar Power Gujarat Ltd (EPGL) and Tata's Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (CGPL).

Citing unavailability amidst rising fuel costs in form of imported coal prices post regulatory changes in Indonesia, both APL and EPGL have discontinued the supply of power under the power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed with state discom Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL), while Tata's CGPL has honouring the PPA partly. While APL has two PPAs of 1000 Mw each, EPGL has a 1000 Mw PPA and CGPL has an 1805 Mw PPA with GUVNL.

Other states too have an allocation from Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) run by CGPL including that from Maharashtra for 760 Mw, Punjab (475 Mw), Rajasthan (380 Mw) and Haryana (380). On the other hand, Haryana Distribution Utilities too has a PPA with APL for 1424 Mw.

Comprising experts from the fields of judiciary, power and finance, the three-member HPC has been tasked to "suggest sustainable solutions for resolving the issue" and suggest other measures for reducing power generation cost in the interest of consumers, as per a recent government resolution (GR) brought out by the energy and petrochemicals department of Government of Gujarat. Also, the committee is empowered to seek additional details, clarifications from the relevant parties as required. 

Not just Gujarat, but even other states such as Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, who have a total tied up a capacity of 8,224 Mw with the three IPPs, have started facing a shortage of power available at the levelised tariff forcing them to purchase power from open market at much higher rates.