State issues notice to private power firms

The state government on Friday sent notices to seven private power generators, who are going ahead with their expansion plans, demanding 50 per cent of the total capacity without competitive bidding.

With the latest move, both the state government and private developers are in a showdown over the new capacities. While private generators are not willing to give power to the state government, with the argument that expansion plans could not be governed by the previous agreements, the state government pointed out the 2003 Electricity Act which allows state governments to claim over 50 per cent of the power.

“We have asked all the private developers to give us 50 per cent of their power. They are yet to respond to our notices,” said Mr Ajay Jain, chairman and managing director, AP Transco.

Private companies earlier made it clear to the state government that the expansion plans would not come under the purview of any previous Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) as fresh addition of capacity can be treated as merchant power.

“When all new projects are given merchant power status, then why not the expansion of existing plants? This is against natural justice,” pointed out an official of Konaseema Power.

Konaseema Power is expanding its capacity to 720 MW, Lanco Power to 730 MW, Gowthami Power to 800 MW, GVK stage I and II will be upgraded to 800 MW, GMR to 720 MW, Spectrum to 1,300 MW and Reliance to 1,420 MW.

These plants are at present operating at a total capacity of 1990 MW and with the expansion they will reach 6,270 MW.

The state government is planning to claim at least 1,000 MW from the proposed expansion as allowed by the Electricity Act.