Gridco Forces Ppl To End Power Pact With Iccl
Succumbing to pressure from Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco), the public sector Paradeep Phosphates Ltd (PPL) has terminated its power purchase agreement with Indian Charge Chrome Ltd (ICCL).
According to sources, PPL was almost forced to scrap its power purchase agreement with ICCL when Gridco made its transmission network unavailable for carriage of ICCL power to the public sector units fertiliser plant at Paradeep from May 1. Though Gridco management claimed that disruption in supply was due to a technical snag in the transmission line, it was not convincing as other bulk consumers in the area like Paradeep Port Trust and HPCL were getting their quota of power without a fail.
In fact, ICCL joint managing director B J Panda, in a letter to the Chief Minister, had accused Gridco of making deliberate attempt to cause PPL to lose faith in the companys power supply and coerce it into purchasing power from the state understanding.
PPL has, meanwhile, entered into an agreement with Gridco for the purchase of 14 mw of power at a higher rate. While PPL was purchasing same quantity of power from ICCL at the rate of Rs 2.66 per unit, it is expected to pay Rs 2.80 per unit to Gridco. In addition, PPL has to deposit caution money of over Rs 2 crore with Gridco for the deal.
ICCL, taking advantage of a government order allowing third party sale of power by private generating stations, had entered into an agreement with PPL in January 1994 for supply of 14 mw of power to the latters Paradeep based unit via Gridcos transmission lines. As per the tripartite agreement, Gridco was supposed to receive a wheeling charge of 15 per cent. The agreement was for five years. But following a late realisation that the state-owned company might lose some of its large industrial clients to private generating stations if such an arrangement was allowed to continue, there had been some attempts by Gridco to revoke it.
Caught in this conflict between Gridco and ICCL, PPL was losing production at the rate of Rs 1 crore a day for the last fortnight due to non-supply of adequate power.