Transmission projects to have tariff bidding

Govt to invite bids from national, international firms.

After the encouraging response to the first two ultra mega power projects, the power ministry has decided to hold aggressive competitive bidding for transmission projects.

"We plan to put up 18 transmission projects for tariff-based competitive bidding from national and international developers," said Power Secretary R V Shahi on the sidelines of a power conference.

The bidding process will be managed by Rural Electricity Corporation for some projects, while the others will be handled by Power Finance Corporation (PFC).

In fact, expressions of interest (EoI) have already been invited for two projects "" on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis "" which would involve an investment of Rs 6,000 crore, for which the PFC has been identified as the bid process coordinator.

The route followed will be the same as that for the ultra mega power plants "" shell companies or special purpose vehicles (SPVs) will be incorporated as subsidiaries of the PFC, and these will undertake the initial preparatory work for the projects, including obtaining of regulatory clearances.

One project is for an evacuation system for Maithon (1,000 Mw), Kodarma (1,000 Mw) and Bokaro (500 Mw), with an estimated cost of Rs 4,200 crore, while the other involves setting up of infrastructure for enabling import of surplus power into the northern region at an estimated investment of Rs 1,800 crore.

The last date for submission of EoI is January 31, 2007.

Mercenary Power

Selling power at market determined rates which are outside the purview of the regulator is what merchant power plants are all about, and the country will soon have many of them.

"We expect about 10,000-15,000 Mw of merchant capacity to come up over the next 3-4 years, and we will facilitate that," Power Secretary R V Shahi said.

At present, there is a merchant capacity of a few hundred megawatts, including the Malana plant of LNJ Bhilwara, which started out as a captive power plant.

The government has authorised the PFC to identify sites for merchant power plants and prepare quick project reports, which will be sold to interested developers.

"We are looking at identifying about two dozen sites, mainly in coal-bearing states, soon," Shahi said.