Hyderabad: Telangana state Transco has decided not to extend power purchase agreements (PPAs) with gas- and coal-based independent power projects such as those of GVK, Reliance, Goutami and others, including the Rayala-seema Thermal Power project (RTPP), after their tenures expire.
Most of these projects are located in Andhra Pradesh. PPAs for some projects have already expired while others will expire by the end of this month.
TS Transco buys about 2,000 MW from these projects. But with the TS government adding capacity to some existing plants in TS and also setting up some new plants, TS Transco has enough power to supply all categories of consumers. The fact that the state will also start getting 600 MW from Chhattisgarh is also a bonus.
According to TS Transco, the estimated power requirement for 2017-18 is about 9,000 MW, while the demand is about 6,000 MW. The daily power demand has come down to 136 MU at present.
Combined AP had signed PPAs with several independent power projects such as Lanco, GVK, GMR, Reliance, Konaseema, Spectrum and others. After bifurcation of the state, TS got some share in these power projects. The TS government accepted this share, despite the cost of power from these projects being high, due to the power requirement at that time.
TS energy officials said the average cost of power from these projects is around Rs 4.46 per unit while power is available at cheaper rates in the market.
With this in mind, TS Transco has decided not to purchase power from these projects after expiry of the PPAs.
TS Transco director (projects and grid operations) G. Narasing Rao said they had decided to stop purchasing power from independent power projects and others after the expiry of PPA period. He said purchase of power from Simhadri and RTPP also will be stopped.
“At present, TS Transco has enough power to supply to all categories of consumers in the state. We are getting 600 MW from Chhattisgarh and very soon 700 MW of solar power will also available to TS Transco,” Mr Rao said.
