TANGEDCO to purchase 400MW power through PTC India
The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) has permitted TANGEDCO to purchase 400MW through PTC India for a period of three years, at ₹3.26 per unit.
The power supply will be from four private power generators and will be the cheapest power available in the market. TANGEDCO has signed power purchase agreements with these companies as it expects power demand to increase from January onwards.
The power will be purchased from JaiPrakash Power Ventures (50MW), SKS Power Generation Chhattisgarh (100MW), DB Power (100MW), and MB Power (Madhya Pradesh) Ltd (150MW).
Per the agreement, the date of commencement of the contract period shall be the date of appointed date and appointed date shall be the date on which conditions precedent are achieved and every condition is either satisfied or waived.
TANGEDCO has been purchasing power to supply power in the state without any cuts.
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A survey conducted by TANGEDCO on the expected power demand in the coming years found out that demand and availability up to 2026 has been assessed and the deficit projected without considering renewable energy. The deficit estimated is to the tune of 1,345MW (2021-22) and 2,115MW for financial year 2022-2023.
TANGEDCO’s upcoming thermal projects are no way near commissioning.
“The ongoing projects at Ennore SEZ, Udangudi, Uppur, ETPS Expansion, are also getting delayed and expected to be commissioned and contribute to grid beyond the forecasted period,” said TANGEDCO in its petition to TNERC.
The power demand was less during COVID-19 period due to the lockdown announcement. Now, the load growth has increased due to uplifting of lockdown restrictions.
“At present, the deficit experienced during peak hours and due to outages of generation plants are met through hydro generation or purchase of power from power exchanges,” said a senior TANGEDCO official.
The Union power ministry has issued guidelines for procurement of power under Pilot-II Scheme for medium term, through PFC Consulting as nodal agency, and M/s PTC India as aggregator.
The guideline is issued to facilitate procurement of power of 2500MW for three years from generating companies having coal-based power plants, which are already commissioned and without power purchase agreements.
The proposed scheme envisages procurement of power through a competitive bidding process to be conducted by PFC Consulting Limited and supply of power between successful bidders and distribution licensees.
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TANGEDCO has executed a long-term agreement with the generators for the purchase of 2830MW.
In this arrangement, since August 2015 the petitioner has to pay a total tariff of ₹4.22 to ₹4.75 per unit to the inter-state generators, and ₹5.24 to ₹6.29 to the intra-state generators.
“The tariff of generators using domestic coal was less than ₹4 per unit and with imported coal was ₹5.29 per unit,” said TANGEDCO.
