The Power Trading Corporation (PTC) has started its operations by undertaking the purchase and sale of power from the 336 mw Chukha hydel power project in Bhutan.
The Union power ministry has also given PTC the mandate for the sale and purchase of power from the 750 mw `West Seti' power project in Nepal and the 1,020 mw `Tala' power project in Bhutan.
Disclosing this at a press conference, PTC chairman R K Madan said these projects would not be mega power projects. While the Seti power project is being developed by Snowy Mountain of Australia, the Tala power project is a joint venture between the Indian and Bhutan government.
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Madan said PTC's responsibility would be to identify the states which would procure power from these projects.
Apart from these projects, the corporation is also examining a proposal to undertake the sale and purchase of the Maithon power project being developed jointly by the Damodar Valley Corporation and BSES, as well as power from Nalco's 500 mw captive power plant.
Tariffs for these projects will have to be scrutinised by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission as they are inter-state power projects.
The Chukha power project, which is already in operation, supplies around 300 mw of power
to West Bengal and Bihar through the PowerGrid Corporation while around 30 mw is being used
by Bhutan.
Under the present arrangement, PTC will now buy power from the Chukha project and sell it to the states. Madan said this arrangement would help PTC earn some revenue before the mega power projects come on stream. Based on current revenue collections, the corporation expects to earn about Rs 140 crore through the transaction of Chukha project.
Projects that are not mega power, will not have the backing of a tri-partite agreement between the state, PTC and the RBI, giving recourse to the central devolution in the event of default.
Madan said these projects would operate on the basis of a letter of credit from the state. He added that as the tariff from the Chukha hydel project was very low (about Re 1 per unit), the states would not default on payments.
Madan also said the PTC had appointed ICICI as consultants to form the structure as well as the capital structure of the corporation. This would be crucial as, once the mega power projects come on stream, the PTC is estimated to have an annual turnover of around Rs 12,000 crore.
The Union finance ministry has already notified mega projects, totalling a capacity of around 17,000 mw, both in the hydel and thermal sector. ack face=arial size=2>
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