PTC mulls 1,000 mw power plant

PTC proposes gas-based thermal power plant on Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border

Public sector undertaking Power Trading Corporation (PTC) is mulling a 1,000 mega watt (mw) gas based thermal power plant on the Andhra Pradesh -Tamil Nadu border.

The corporation has already approached various state departments for a business tie-up, including the Andhra Pradesh Transmission Corporation (APTransco), the state power utility.

According to sources, it has offered to supply power at a fixed Rs 2.25 paise per unit tariff in a long term contract.

PTC, which just purchases and sells power for a margin has been facing tough times of late, especially in the summer in keeping its commitments on power supply to its customers. And it also wants to tap the growing demand for power by taking advantage of free access policy under the Central Electricity Act.

Sources said that APTransco has been studying the PTC's proposal along with the demand side evaluation.

"Power shortages would be there," said a senior Transco official, while justifying a possible tie-up with PTC. PTC is expected to complete the project in a three-year period after receiving business commitments for buy-back of power for the 1,000 mega watt power plant.

Regarding the location of the project, PTC is said to have been zeroing in on the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu border based on the proximity and availability of natural gas required for the project.

Though, APTransco is actively considering the Power Trading Corporation's proposal, senior officials are not ruling out a different scenario.

In the backdrop of huge gas finds in the KG Basin by Reliance Industries, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is learnt to have invited the company to set up gas-based power projects in Andhra Pradesh on the lines of its UP proposal.

Reliance has announced that it will sell power at Rs 2 per unit from its proposed mega 10,000 mw gas project in Uttar Pradesh. This has attracted the attention of the chief minister who is searching for ways to get cheaper power to provide free power to farmers.

With the announcement of the free power scheme and the promise of a 24-hour assured power supply from 2005, demand and consumption of power is slated to increase and APTransco is reworking its demand requirement.

The state government is also of the view that power from Reliance may come at cheaper rates and a barter arrangement on natural gas is being mulled as the gas needs to be transported through the state only.

"If that proposal materialises, we may not need PTC power anymore," said a senior government official. The state government is proposing an arrangement that would give the state some leverage on the gas which would be tapped from KG Basin.