Pvt players to enter Haryana power sector

Private players are soon going to change the power supply scenario in Haryana. In order to ease the power crisis in the state and to ensure uninterrupted power supply shortly, the state has invited corporate players to set up power generation facilities in the state.

Experts in the industry say this move of the state government would definitely help the industries in the state, which are reeling under a power crisis.

Commenting upon power projects that have been finalised and developed by the private sector, sources in the Haryana Government said the Haryana Power Generation Corporation(HPGC) was coming up with a 600 MW power generation system in Yamunanagar, which is to be built by Reliance and will be handed over to the HPGC for operation.

Also, a power plant of 1,000-1,200 Mw by HPGC is coming up in Hisar. This too would be built by private players and the pre-bid conference for it is going on.

Besides this, the government is also inviting Independent power players to generate power ranging from 5 Mw-2,000 Mw under scheme 1 (according to this scheme, anywhere in India one can operate and supply power to the state government, as per government of India tariff policy).

The state government has also identified the site, Jhajjar, to set up 1,000-1,200 Mw power stations by private players under Scheme 2( the site has to be identified by the government and developed by private players.).

Currently, the installed capacity in the state for power generation is 4,033 Mw. Out of this, the state is utilising 50-70 per cent because of routine shutdown and certain other problems like silting (in case of hydro electric power) and non-availability of raw material like gas for gas generation plants.

Experts say naphtha can be used in the place of gas but it proves a costly proposition for generation as it costs almost five times more per unit compared to gas.

As far as demand is concerned, it is around 4,200 Mw in peak hours while it is 3,400-3,500 Mw during off-peak hours.

Commenting upon new power tie-ups and projects, sources in the Haryana government said central bodies like NTPC and NHPC have given consent to give 750 Mw of power to the state from the central pool.

Moreover, according to the Centre's policy, out of the 12,000 Mw mega power projects that are coming up across the country, Haryana would be entitled to 1,250 MW of power.

A source added that independent power players like Jaiprakash Hydro Power had agreed to supply 400-500 Mw of power to the state.

Commenting upon state initiative, he said the government had signed an MoU with NTPC which was coming out with a 1,500 Mw power plant in the state, and would supply 750 Mw each to Haryana and Delhi.

Earlier, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's government claimed the state would be in a position to generate an additional 5,000 Mw of power in the next five years.

Also, industrials have high expectations from the new chairman of the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, Bhaskar Chatterjee, as he had said he was conversant with the functioning of the power sector since he had already worked as power secretary.

After assuming the charge of the office, he said he would convene a meeting of the officers of the power sectors and formulate a strategy to further improve the power sector in the state.