Haryana initiates competitive bidding

The Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) has initiated the process of competitive bidding in accordance with guidelines issued by the union ministry of power for determination of tariff to procure power to mitigate the acute electricity shortage in the state.

A spokesman of HPGCL said the corporation had already invited bids to procure power of 2,000 Mw under case 1 and 1,000 Mw to 1,000 plus 20 per cent Mw under case 2 of tariff-based bidding guidelines.

He said the existing prospective generators or traders have been invited to give proposals to supply a minimum of 5 Mw and a maximum of 2,000 Mw of power for case 1.

Power could be supplied from next year onwards and the power purchase agreement would be for a minimum of seven years period.

For case 2, he said, the corporation has identified a site at Matenhail in Jhajjar district where sufficient land was available for development of a 1,200 Mw power plant.

He said the state has been suffering from an acute demand-supply problem. The state was also planning to set up 600 Mw power projects at Yamunanagar and 1,000 Mw at Hisar. Another 1,000 Mw of power was expected against the state's share from the central sector projects which would start generation during the 11th Plan.

Besides, addition in generation capacity, HPGCL has a plan to procure 3,000 to 3,200 Mw power for the state to bridge the gap between demand and supply.