DEEP e-Bidding Portal for Short Term Power Procurement

Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price (DEEP) is an E-Bidding and E-Reverse Auction Portal for Procurement of Short Term Power by Discoms. It was launched by Power Minister Piyush Goyal last month. The web portal it is said will ensure seamless flow of power from seller to buyer. The scope of this portal shall be further expanded soon to cover medium term and long term procurement of power.

@PiyushGoyal @MinOfPower launched DEEP Portal An e-Bidding & e-Reverse Auction portal for procurement of short term power by DISCOMs.

— BJP4Himachal (@BJP4Himachal) April 12, 2016

It will be a very strong weapon to curb illegal transactions and will help in price reduction through competition. Taking the web portal to next level, Mr. Goyal has informed all states that they should put their power purchase data on the portal within one month. He also directed that first five states to put data within one week will be rewarded.

First e-Bidding process:

First e-Bidding process through recently launched DEEP (Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price) e-Bidding Portal for Short term power procurement has been concluded for the State of Uttarakhand and Kerala on 29th of April 2016, for Torrent Power Ltd. on 3rd of May 2016 and for State of Bihar on 9th of May 2016.

The process has resulted in substantial savings as the prices discovered through e-bidding are significantly lower than the prices at which power was procured during the similar period in the last year.

Launching DEEP (Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price) e-Bidding & e-reverse auction portal. Watch live at https://t.co/ZKamgD5JNE

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) April 12, 2016

Much lower rates bid:

For the State of Kerala, the lowest prices for the month of May in slot of the day have been discovered at 3.14 per unit while in the last year, Short term power in round the clock was procured at the rate of 4.70 per unit.

For the State of Uttarakhand, the lowest price for power for the month of July on round the clock basis was discovered at 2.59 per unit through reverse auction in e-Bidding process using the bidding portal. It may be noted that last year for the month of July, the lowest price at which short term power was procured by the Discoms in the State of Uttarakhand was 3.41 per unit.

In e-Bidding process of Torrent Power Ltd., the lowest price for the month of May-June in slot of the day has been discovered at the rate of 2.95 per unit. There was no short term procurement in 2014-15 and 2015-16 by Torrent Power Ltd.

For the State of Bihar, the lowest rate for the month of July, for slot of day, has been discovered at 3.08 per unit. No procurement was done in last two year through bidding by Discoms in the State of Bihar.

These lower prices discovered through reverse auction in e-Bidding Process are expected to result in overall reduction of cost of procurement of power in the States and greater transparency in the auction process benefiting the ultimate consumers.