Apparently faced with disinterested bidders, the Uttar Pradesh government has extended the date for the submission of financial bids for the proposed thermal power plant in Allahabad district to December 15.
The government wants to set up two power plants at Bara (1,980 Mw) and Karchhna (1,320 Mw) in Allahabad based on the Super Critical Technology. Both the proposed plants have already been delayed by one year.
Nine companies had filed their request for qualification (RFQ) documents, including NTPC, Indiabulls, JP Power Ventures, Lanco Kondapalli, GVK, L&T, Adani Power, Reliance and Isolux. The RFQs were opened on September 1.
However, none of these companies have so far filed their request for proposal (RFP) document containing the tariff-based financial bids, official sources told Business Standard.
Meanwhile, the high-level committee is still undecided over the financial bids filed for Karchhna, where JP Power ventures had emerged as the lowest bidder, quoting Rs 2.97 per unit last month.
However, the bid is almost 37 paise higher than the earlier bid of Lanco and Reliance, which were rejected by the government for being on the higher side.
This has put the government and the Energy Task Force (ETF) in a dilemma, whether to seek fresh bidding process. JP has already declined to revise its bid downwards citing difficult credit market situation and higher cost of inputs.
In the first bidding in April 2008, Lanco had emerged as the lowest bidder, but it was rejected in May. In subsequent bidding, Reliance quoted lowest rates of Rs 2.64 and Rs 2.60 per unit for Bara and Karchhna power plants, respectively.
However, the government decided for fresh bidding to bring down the tariff further, since the Reliance rates were only a paisa lower than the previous Lanco bid.
A senior power department official said the bids were valid for six months and the government had “ample time” to decide on Karchhna.
The state government is also awaiting the outcome of bidding for the 4,000-Mw Tilaiya ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Jharkhand, since it believes that the bids would be higher.
“This might allow the ETF to justify the ‘higher’ bid by JP for Karchhna and the subsequent financial bid for Bara,” sources said.
Meanwhile, All India Power Engineers Federation general secretary Shailendra Dubey maintained that 37 paise higher tariff by JP would cost the government Rs 7,400 crore in 25 years, while the cost of the project itself was estimated at Rs 6,700 crore.
“The state government should hand over both the projects to UP Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd so that the projects are completed on time and cheaper electricity could be provided to consumers,” Dubey informed.
The state government is reeling under severe power crisis and the demand and supply gap in the peak hour routinely touches almost 2,500 Mw, despite import from the central grid to the tune of 3,000 Mw. The total generation capacity of the 26-odd hydro and thermal power units in the state is about 2,500 Mw.
