Got power demand wrong, Discoms end up paying more

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 24

The failure of the power department authorities to prepare proper estimates of the state’s power demand has proved a costly affair.

During 2015-16, the state had to purchase 1052.18 million units (MUs) at a cost of Rs11.54 per unit under the long-term power purchase agreement even as power from state’s plants cost between Rs4.32-Rs4.48 per unit.

Since the authorities have signed more long-term PPAs than required, the state’s power generation capacity remained under utilised.

The authorities were in a comfortable position last year and they did not need to utilise full purchased power under PPA from an Aravali-based private company and purchased only 1,052.18 MUs. But since the authorities had signed PPA for the purchase of a fixed number of units, the per unit cost of power was increased to Rs11.54. Sources said the cost would have gone down, had the authorities purchased more power at various changing rates.

Sources in the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HGPCL) disclosed that during 2015-16, the per unit cost of Panipat thermal station remained Rs4.32-Rs4.48, while the same at Yamunangar thermal station was Rs4.26 and at Khedar Rs4.32.

“The authorities cut their own generation and then they failed to prepare proper estimates of demand. The Chief Minister should look into that how the power sector is being run,” said Vinod Gupta, spokesman, All India Power Engineer Federation.

During 2015-16, the authorities purchased a total of 50,520.24 Mus. Of this, only 16,339.36 MUs came from state sources, while the remaining 34,180.89 MUs were bought from outside sources despite low generation cost of the state. The power purchase bill is likely to jump to Rs11,042.26 crore during the current financial year, up from Rs9,831.73 crore in 2014-15 and Rs9,664.81 crore in 2015-16.

“It’s not right,” said Additional Chief Secretary, Power, Rajan Gupta. He refused to comment further, but said Nitin Yadav, MD of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, looked after the purchase. Yadav could not be contacted.

Padamjit Singh, an expert on the matter, said: “The state should not purchase power at higher rates by decreasing own generation. Own generation cost comes down when we keep utilise full generation capacity.”