The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) plan to purchase around 1,800 Mw power to meet future requirements of the state under Case-I of guidelines of the Ministry of Power might be delayed by another 7-8 months. According to sources, the technical bids submitted by the bidders in October 2009 were not meeting the board requirements. So again the board is in the process of issuing fresh tenders to appoint consultant to evaluate the bids and thereafter it will float global tenders to purchase 1,800Mw of power.
The bidders shall be supplying power to PSEB in next three to four years which will help in bridging the gap in demand and supply to a great extent.
It is worth mentioning that earlier in October 2009, 7 companies submitted the technical bid to the board, which includes Reliance Power which is ready to sell 600 Mw of power, Power Trading Corporation ready with 550 Mw power, OPG Gujarat 270 Mw, Vandna Power 100 Mw, Jai Parkash Powers 90 Mw and Veena Power 90 Mw power. In total 2,300 Mw power has been offered on sale to Punjab State Electricity Board.
However, board sources informed that bidders were offering power from upcoming thermal plants across India and were not meeting certain criteria laid by the board. So the board decided to invite fresh global tenders for the purchase of 1,800 Mw±20 per cent of power. He further informed that initially the consultant would be appointed by the board for the evaluation of bids and very soon tender would be floated for hiring a consultant and later on global tenders for purchase of power would be invited.
According to the officials of PSEB, currently Punjab has an installed capacity of 6,841 Mw, while the demand is about 9,000 Mw. So there is a shortfall of about 2,160 Mw. Further, the state has highest per capita consumption of power in the country at 972 units, as compared to the national average of 700 units. Furthermore, the power shortage in the state is growing at the rate of 10 per cent per annum.
Also, by the end of the 11th Plan the availability of power from all sources in Punjab would be 8,000 Mw whereas the peak demand would surpass 13,100 Mw, thereby generating a shortfall of about 5,100 Mw by the end of the 11th Plan. So, in order to meet with the expected demand, procurement of 1800±20% MW of power under case-I of Ministry of Power guidelines was initiated by PSEB during December 2007 and Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission approved the purchase of power through competitive bidding in September 2008.
Besides this, 3 thermal plants are also being developed by private players at Talwandi Sabo (1,980 Mw) by Sterlite Energy, 540 Mw Goindwal Sahib Thermal Power Plant by GVK Power and 1,320 Mw Rajpura Thermal Power Plant by Larsen & Toubro.