Power ministry scraps relief scheme to thermal plants owing state discoms’ lack of interest
The Power Ministry has scrapped the auction to procure 2,500MW electricity for medium term (three years) under a scheme to provide relief to thermal power plants plagued by short coal supplies, state-run NHPC said on Monday. According to sources, lack of interest from state power utilities due to a higher tariff of Rs 4.41 per unit discovered through the reverse auction process led to the cancellation of the auction.
The power ministry now has advised nodal agency Power Finance Corporation-arm PFC Consultancy Ltd (PFCCL) to call the bids again. “PFCCL appointed NHPC as “Aggregator” (in March this year) under Pilot Scheme-II for procurement of aggregated power of 2500 MW. Now, present bidding process under the scheme has been annulled by Ministry of Power (MoP), Government of India. Further, MoP advised PFCCL (Nodal Agency) to undertake re-bidding process,” NHPC said.
