Pvt power players accuse NTPC of abusing mkt position

Private power producers, including Reliance, Tata, Essar and Adani, have alleged that state-run NTPC is abusing its "dominant" market position and avoiding competition.

The private producers have opposed NTPC's move to enter into power purchase agreements (PPAs) with several states for supplying as much as 37,000 Mw of electricity between October 1, 2010 and January 5, 2011 before competitive bidding-based power procurement came into effect.

In a petition filed with the sectoral regulator Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), the Association of Power Producers (APP) has called for nullifying these PPAs to provide a level-playing field to all.

The private producers have asked CERC to direct NTPC "to discontinue such abuse of dominant position and not to enter into anti-competitive agreements in future".

"NTPC's spree of signing PPAs (between October and January) without any groundwork is not appropriate. It was being done only to avoid competition," APP's Director General Ashok Khurana told PTI.

NTPC officials could not be contacted for comments. However, sources in the know said that generally states are more comfortable with public sector enterprises than private players for power supply.

Along with Reliance Power, Tata Power, Essar Power and Adani Power, eight other companies have also petitioned the CERC against NTPC.

Other firms are AES (India), CLP Power India, GMR Energy, GVK Gautami Power, Indiabulls Power, Jindal Power, JSW Energy, and Lanco Infratech.

NTPC, the country's largest power producer, has a generating capacity of 34,194 Mw.

According to the petition, unless NTPC is prevented from executing the said PPAs, "no coal would be available for entities other than NTPC".

"By signing contracts for sale of power, NTPC is blocking upstream market for supply of coal. As a result, independent power producers, who are competitors of NTPC, would have extremely limited access to coal linkages...," the petition said.