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Orissa has set itself a deadline of November 30 for the signing of bulk power tariff agreements between Power Grid Corporation of India Limited and 13 IPPs with whom the state entered into MoUs in 2006.
A meeting of the stakeholders to finalise modalities for signing the BPTAs will be arranged within October 30 2008.
Power Grid is supposed to set up two (2) high power transmission towers costing over Rs 16,500 crore (Rs 165 billion) for evacuating a bulk of the 16,000 Mws of electricity generated within the state by 2011-12 to western and northern India.
The high power corridors will spread over 1500 kilometres from Angul to Barnala in Punjab with a 800 KV HVDC line capacity and about 350 kilometres from Jharsuguda to Dharmajaynagar in Chattisgarh with a 765 KV bipolar capacity line.
The issue is hanging fire for the past 10 months, when the matter was first conceptualised with neither the IPPs nor Power Grid showing interest in going ahead with the move.
It is after the signing of BPTAs that PGCIL is expected to set up the east-north and east-west power corridors.
Most IPPs have already filed their long term open access needs with PGCIL on a 25-year commitment and also fixed beneficiaries for evacuation.
Orissa has further plans of evacuating almost 24,000 Mws of power by the end of 12th plan through the corridors.
Says a senior official of the Orissa grid maintenance and transmission regulation agency GRIDCO, "We will be happy if BPTAs for only 4000 Mws of power is signed in the first step. At least, that will prompt Power Grid in setting up the transmission corridors".
IPPs and other state and central power utilities using the PGCIL power corridors will have to pay Rs 1 crore for transmitting one megawatt of power. In the beginning, the state government requested PGCIL to set up 5 power corridors of 1000-1200 Ckms, but the plan was changed.
The transmission price to different beneficiaries will be fixed by the IPPs after consultation with the central electricity regulatory commission.
The state regulatory commission will also have a role in fixing the carrying cost which will be loaded with the tariff at which the generating companies will be selling the power.
Power Grid has requested the Orissa IPPs to fix realistic targets on power generation and transmission. The per unit transmission cost of PGCIL is around 20-22 paise.
On this cost the IPPs will calculate the bulk power tariffs.
Regulating or fixing of surcharges for offsetting cross subsidies and meeting infrastructure costs are unlikely to be adopted in future as there is a possibility of a huge number of private power plants coming up across the country.
Till now, the private power industry has a share of only 10 per cent in the country's total power production. The margin is expected to cross 40 per cent by 2020, according to power experts.
The union power ministry plans to induce competition among power utilities and help driving down power costs to a minimum in future.
This will benefit the IPPs and the state and central power utilities in purchasing power from the generating companies avoiding intermediaries, traders and distribution companies.
