Power ministry launches app, portal for states

The power ministry on Wednesday launched a mobile app and a portal for tracking and managing merit order despatch of power. The app, called MERIT (Merit Order Despatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income and Transparency), would entail savings of nearly Rs 20,000 crore to consumers in the coming five years.

Merit order stack is an approach to the problem of minimising the sum of generators’ operating costs, while honouring operational constraints of available generation to supply in a secure and reliable manner, said a government’s statement.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal said, “Producers can reduce power costs by 10 paise a unit by rationalising coal supply made possible through the portal.” The e-bidding portal has been designed to facilitate states in inviting bids for procurement of power from the perspective independent power producers in transparent and fair manner. The successful bidder shall be selected through an e-reverse bid process. 

“Some years back, when coal linkage rationalisation was undertaken, it led to huge savings. This portal is again going to bring in improvement in savings. It will also provide flexibility in a transparent method of buying power,” said A K Bhalla, secretary, ministry of power.

The portal has been jointly developed by the power ministry, PFC Consulting and MSTC.