Haryana to bridge demand supply gap in power sector

Chandigarh, May 3: The Haryana government has taken a number of initiatives to ensure additional generation of power during the 11th Five Year Plan to bridge the gap between demand and availability of power in the state.

A Haryana Power Generation Corporation spokesman said that the present peak demand of power in Haryana was 4951 MW and at the Growth Rate of 9 per cent the demand was expected to rise to 6989 MW by the year 2009-10 and to 8303 MW by 2011-12.

However, at 14 per cent growth rate, the demand forecast was estimated at 8362 MW in the year 2009-10 and 10867 MW by 2011-12.

He said as part of the state sector projects, a 600 MW coal based thermal power project was being set up at Yamuna Nagar. The first unit of this project would be completed by November, 2007 and the second would be commissioned by February, 2008.

Another 1200 MW coal based plant would come up at Hisar. An aggressive commissioning schedule of 35 and 38 months had been envisaged for this, which he said, was the shortest commissioning schedule for such a large project.

The spokesman said that with the commissioning of these two units, the Haryana would be able to provide additional 288 lakh units per day which would be sufficient to cater to additional 4.4 lakh consumers, which implied around 11 per cent of the existing consumers of the state.

The first unit of 600 MW of this project was scheduled for commissioning in December, 2009 and the second in March, 2010.

This project, he said, was a big step taken by the state government towards achieving self sufficiency in the field of power.

He said that HPGCL had also acquired 989 acres of land for another project near Barwala in Panchkula district. The project has been included by the Union Ministry of Power in the capacity addition programme for the 11th Five Year Plan. This was the first project in the northern region to be awarded Mega Project status with attached benefits under the mega project policy of the Central Government.

This, he said, would result in reduction of project cost and inter-alia lower cost of generation and tariff.

The spokesman said the Aravali Super Thermal Power Project at Jhajjar was being executed by National Thermal Power Corporation on the concept to commissioning basis and the subsequent Operation and Maintenance would be handled jointly by the Delhi and Haryana governments.

The Aravali Power Company Pvt Ltd was incorporated in December, 2006 as a joint venture company of the NTPC, IPGCL and HPGCL. The estimated cost was estimated at Rs 8293.925 crore, he said.

He said Haryana had given its consent for obtaining power from all the projects being set-up in the central sector. In this connection power purchase agreements have been signed with the provision that Haryana would be willing to off take more power over and above its anticipated share as per Gadgil Formula in case some spare power was available from the share of other states or unallocated quota.

It was expected to add around 2900 MW from the projects to be set up in the central sector by the year 2012-13, he added.

Similarly, the spokesman said, Haryana would purchase power from a number of projects being set up in the private sector in other states. These included 300 MW Amarkantak Project in Chhatisgarh and 70 MW Budhil Hydro Projects in Himachal Pradesh.

Purchase of power was being envisaged from other projects being developed through M/s PTC India Ltd. Procurement of power through tariff based competitive bidding under Case II for setting up of 1200 MW Coal based Plant in the Jhajjar district.

He said that the Haryana was exploring possibilities of setting up of a pet coke based power plant of around 250 MW capacity. For this expression of interest had been invited and in response seven firms had responded. Their offers were being evaluated, he said.

Observing that nuclear power was yet another option being explored by the state government. A suitable site had been identified in Fatehabad District for setting up of a 2800 MW nuclear power plant and the matter was being pursued with Centre, he added.

UNI