Karnataka may buy surplus power from Gridco

State owned power trading firm Gridco has offered to sell its surplus power to Karnataka through bilateral power trading.

Gridco, on Monday, presented a proposal to the Karnataka chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee who held talks with top state officials. Mukherjee has agreed to consider the proposal positively.

P K Jena, principal secretary (energy) said, “Gridco is in a position to sell its surplus power to other states. We had preliminary discussions regarding exporting power to Karnataka. The modalities are yet to be decided.”

“We have offered to sell power to Karnataka on medium-term to long-term basis. Gridco can have a bilateral contract with the Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL), the nodal agency for power procurement there. Both Gridco and KPCL will have elaborate discussions in this connection next week”, said Hemant Sharma, chairman cum managing director (CMD), Gridco.

On quantum of power to be sold to Karnataka, Sharma said, “That will depend on their requirement as well as our availability. Our power surplus position varies depending on the season. The state hopes to have 500 Mw surplus power by 2016. Presently, there is a significant crash in power demand due to peak winter but demand is expected to pick up from April onwards.”He said, Gridco has already sold 400 Mw surplus power to Kerala and Tamil Nadu on the bilateral trading route. Heavy rains during the monsoon season had led to glut in hydro power generation.

Gridco has already raked in earnings of Rs 500 crore through trade of surplus power till the end of December. Its earnings from surplus power sale is expected to reach around Rs 800 crore by the close of this fiscal.

“We are preferring to sell surplus power through bilateral contracts rather than trading it on the energy exchanges where there are price fluctuations”, said the Gridco CMD.

Under bilateral power trading, the buyer and seller typically negotiate a set of terms and conditions that forms the basis of trade between them. After the agreement is finalized, electricity trading can commence. The contract between the two parties specify the price and amount of electricity to be traded.


Odisha's current off peak power demand stands at 2700 Mw with peak power demand reaching up to 3200 Mw. The state's power availability is around 3000 Mw, leaving a surplus of about 200 Mw during the non-peak hours. Normal hydro power generation is to the tune of 400 Mw that is scaled up to 600 Mw to meet peak power demand.