ChiefMinister Captain Amarinder Singh has ordered Punjab State Power CorporationLimited (PSPCL) to cancel or revisit all the one-sided PPAs with privatecompanies that are not contractually obligated to supply sufficient power tomeet the state’s peak demand during the paddy sowing and summer season.
Takingserious note of fiasco relating to Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL), Mansa –one of the largest private thermal plants in the state, which miserably failedto perform in the current paddy season, the Chief Minister has directed PSPCLto revoke its PPA, which is heavily biased in favour of the company.
He has alsoasked PSPCL to examine all the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) signed by theerstwhile SAD-BJPP government with the various Independent Power Producers(IPPs), which were established basically to meet the power demands of the Stateespecially during paddy sowing and summer season. He has directed PSPCL toterminate/revisit all the lopsided PPAs that are not beneficial to the state.
The ChiefMinister noted that PSPCL had signed 14 PPAs with Thermal/Hydro and 122 LongTerm PPAs with Solar/Biomass Plants after 2007, to make the state power surpluswith generation capacity of around 13800 MW. However, in this current paddyseason, all three units of TSPL failed to generate power for few days duringthe peak paddy season. One unit of TSPL failed completely to operate from March2021, and two units remained out of power generation for the last one month, hesaid. At present, only one unit of TSPL is operational, he said, adding thatthese factors have caused huge power shortage in the state.
PSPCL hasalready issued notice to TSPL by imposing the penalty but as the PPAs areone-sided, the penalty imposed will be very meager in comparison to the lossescaused by the failure of these thermal plants. Further, as per the provisionsof the PPAs, at present, it is not compulsory for the IPPs to supply powerduring peak summer/paddy period. Hence, taking advantage of the loopholes inPPAs, the IPPs are claiming full fixed charges from PSPCL by supplying power inthe off-season when the state requires it the least.
The Chief Ministerpointed out that to meet the deficit resulting from the failure of TSPL, with acapacity of 3x660MW (1980MW) to meet the state’s critical power requirement inthe ongoing season, PSPCL had to purchase short-term power from the PowerExchange. PSPCL had procured 271 Crore Units of power in the months of June andJuly by spending Rs.886 Crore.
It was alsoforced to utilize full power from the Central Sector Generating Stations sothat the crops of the farmers could be saved, Captain Amarinder noted, addingthat the state was also compelled to enforce power regulatory measures from 1stJuly to 11th July on Large Supply (LS) industry of to meet the rising demand ofthe farmers. This, he said, not only resulted in inconvenience to the variousconsumers of the state but also imposed additional financial burden on thefinancially crunched PSPCL.