PATIALA: "Lopsided power purchase agreements (PPAs) which were signed in Punjab on the basis of over estimation of the shortage condition prevailing in the state and by over projecting the future demands needs to be revisited" said Er. Padamjit Singh, a retired Chief Engineer and Chief Patron of All India Power Engineers Fedearation.
Punjab power consumers have to bear the brunt of extra burden running into thousands of crore for the contract period of 25 years as private power generators get paid even by not supplying power. The surplus capacity is being surrendered year after year after making the payment of capacity charges without availing the corresponding energy.
The power purchase agreements for Talwandi Sabo thermal plant (1980 MW), and Rajpura thermal plant (1400 MW), were executed in such a way that power consumers of Punjab are bound to suffer during the period of these agreements. If we look into the details of PPAs Punjab to pay exceptionally high fixed charges to private thermal plants at Talwandi and Rajpura and these are 8 to 10 times higher in comparison to Reliance Energy owned thermal plant at Sasan which came around the same time and is of similar make as that of Talwandi Sabo.
Further incentive for Plant Availability Factor (PAF) more than 85% for both plants is 3.5 times than that of the said thermal plant at Sasan. While the incentive for Sasan is 7 paise per unit, it is 25 paise for Talwandi Sabo and Rajpura thermals. Further the clause for penalty for low plant availability for both plants is meaningless as PAF limit for penalty is only below 75 % which never occurs in case of thermal plants.
The PSPCL has to pay the energy charge as per the scheduled energy drawn by PSPCL while the capacity charge has to be given on the declared capacity which is declared by the generator for the day.
PSPCL purchased 1, 368.23 & 3, 047.34 million units from Talwandi Sabo thermal plant during the year 2014-15 & 2015-16 respectively. Due to hidden clauses in PPA against a fixed cost of Rs. 1.35 per unit, PSPCL in actual paid the fixed cost of Rs. 1.66 & Rs. 2.58 respectively. The total cost per unit paid for Talwandi Sabo is Rs. 4.04 & Rs. 5.19 per unit respectively against declared tariff of Rs. 2.36 in the competitive bidding.
Similarly, PSPCL purchased 5, 415.59 & 7, 258.52 million units from Rajpura thermal during the year 2014-15 & 2015-16 respectively. Against a fixed cost of Rs. 1.37 & Rs. 1.48 per unit, PSPCL paid a fixed cost of Rs. 1.99, Rs. 1.98 The total cost per unit paid is Rs. 4.44 & Rs. 4.18 per unit respectively against declared tariff of Rs. 2.89.For the year 2016-17 the total energy bill for the year was ₨. 3555 crore with the overall energy rate being 3.94 per unit.
The payments of fixed charges to both the private thermal plants at Talwandi and Rajpura are to be made on the basis of PAF. In comparison whereas Punjab is making payment of fixed charges to NTPC on basis of PLF.
Padamjit Singh further added " the Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed solar and wind energy companies opposing renegotiation of tariffs by the state to approach state electricity regulator. Similarly PSPCL should also go to PSERC for reopening the lopsided power purchase agreements and that Punjab should at least follow Gujarat which gives its annual power requirements before the start of financial year and the private power producers are free to sell additional surplus power in the open market for that year."