As many as eight companies have shown interest in developing the Rs 24,200 crore Cheyyur Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) to be set up in Tamil Nadu – the country’s first coastal power plant to be bid out with an attached captive port.
According to Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for UMPPs, the firms have submitted their Request for Qualification (RFQ) for the project as on Thursday, the last date for bid submission.
“The companies include NTPC, Adani, JSW, JSPL and China Light & Power,” said a senior PFC executive. PFC had floated RFQs for the 4,000 Mw project in September this year along with another similar sized pithead project being planned in Odisha. NTPC, Adani and JSW had also evinced interest in Odisha UMPP, the last day for which was November 25.
The state-owned lender had received nine bids for the Odisha UMPP by the last date of its bid submission on Monday -- including those by hydro major NHPC (which teamed up with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and Singareni Collieries), NTPC Ltd, Tata Power, Adani Power, JSW Energy, Jindal Power Ltd (JPL), Vedanta Group company Sterlite Infraventures, China Light & Power (CLP) and Engineering giant L&T.
PFC would screen these companies on technical parameters for qualification. It would then invite financial bids, called Request for Proposal (RFPs), from the selected firms in December. The financial bids would be opened next year in February. PFC planned to issue Letter of Award (LoA) to the winning bidder the same month.
Power from the coastal project would be supplied to seven states including the lead procurer Tamil Nadu (1,600 Mw), Karnataka (800 Mw), Andhra Pradesh (400 Mw), Kerala and Uttar Pradesh (300 Mw each) and Punjab (200 Mw).
The bids are being called at a time the Southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has, through an order passed last month, restricted the government from finally awarding the project pending its final order on a petition filed by locals. The locals alleged large-scale violation of environmental norms in the grant of green clearance for the project.
The two UMPPs are part of a bigger plan by the government to set up 13 such large-sized projects to bridge the gap in the demand and supply of power. Three such UMPPs have already been awarded to Reliance Power while another one has been bagged by Tata Power. However, the projects have run into rough weather with the developers seeking tariff hikes as compensation for impact due to changes in post-bid conditions including higher fuel prices and fixed costs.
