Haryana to ink 1200-MW agreement with Adani Power Limited soon

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 1

After months of negotiations, the Haryana Government will soon sign a supplementary power purchase agreement of about 1,200 MW with Adani Power Limited (APL).

The available power will help the state in tiding over the demand during the summer season.

Earlier, one of the disputes between the two was over the withdrawal of pending cases before different forums, including the apex court. The Haryana Advocate-General had opined against withdrawing the cases against the APL. Now, it has been decided by both parties that cases will not be withdrawn.

The government and the APL had signed an agreement in 2008 for supplying 1,424 MW power for 25 years. Two separate power purchase agreements (PPAs) were executed by Adani Power Limited with the two Haryana entities for supplying 712 MW power to each of them from the Mundra Power Project in Gujarat.

The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission adopted the tariff of Rs 2.94 per unit on July 31, 2008.

A change in the regulations took place in Indonesia in 2010 and 2011, which aligned the export price of coal from Indonesia to international market prices instead of the price that was prevalent in the past 40 years. As the cost of operations rose, the Mundhra plant started posting losses.

However, on April 11, 2017, the SC ruled that a change in Indonesian law would not qualify as a change in the law as per the PPAs.

The APL has not been supplying power for the past one and half years to Haryana over the rise in the cost of imported coal. The state has been facing acute power shortage during the summer season. In 2023-24, it is going to face a shortage of 1,713 MW in April, which will rise to 2,194 MA in May, 4,203 MW in June, 4,120 MW in July, 3,378 MW in August, and 4,282 MW in September. Even in October, it is likely to face a shortage of 2,340 MW.

Earlier, the energy charges were based on the 70:30 ratio of contracted capacity, based on domestic and imported coal, respectively. Now, Adani Power will supply about 1,000 MW at Rs 3.54 per unit, after adjusting for flue gas desulphurisation and other duties. The rest of the 200 MW produced from the imported coal will cost as per the tariff decided by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. The government has agreed to drop about 200 MW of the contracted supply based on imported coal. Otherwise, the cost of power from the domestic coal is between Rs 5 and 6 per unit.

“We have managed to retain the entire domestic coal-based power supply in the yet-to-be-signed supplementary PPA,” said PK Das, Chairman of the Haryana Power Utilities. Das said the state would manage the shortage through the short-term power purchase agreements. On the question of power cuts, he said, “There will be no power cuts in the coming summer. The power promised to the urban and rural domestic consumers, farmers and industry will be delivered.”

No outages this summer

There will be no power cuts this summer season. The power promised to the urban and rural domestic consumers, farmers and industry will be rdelivered. — PK Das, chairman, haryana power utilities

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