Power companies seeking support from the Power System Development Fund (PSDF) to run their stranded gas-based plants on imported fuel can submit their technical bids till May 2.

Plants that received no supply of gas during April 2014 to January 2015 will be eligible for bidding.

Interested parties would need to submit a technical bid by May 2. The submission of technical bids began on April 25. A dummy run of the electronic auction will also be held on May 2-4.

The list of qualified bidders will be announced on May 5. Following this, players will need to submit a financial bid which will comprise the total incremental electricity and the per unit PSDF support sought. MSTC, the state-run auction service provider, will automatically calculate the required amount of imported natural gas required. There will be five steps of the financial auction till the aggregate required imported natural gas for all the bidders reaches 120 per cent of the available amount.

Auction at the target plant load factor of 25 per cent, target price of ₹4.19 a unit and PSDF support ceiling of ₹1.26 a unit, will be held first.

If the required aggregate imported natural gas doesn’t reach 120 per cent, then there will be a fresh auction at target PLF of 27.5 per cent with a target price of ₹3.99 a unit and PSDF support ceiling at ₹1.46 a unit. If, despite this, the aggregate demand of imported natural gas still does not reach 120 per cent the bid will be at a target PLF of 30 per cent with target price of ₹3.79 a unit and PSDF support ceiling at ₹1.66 a unit.

In the fourth stage, auction at target PLF of 32.5 per cent and target price ₹3.59 will be at a PSDF support ceiling of ₹1.86 and finally target PLF of 35 per cent, target price of ₹3.39 with a PSDF support ceiling of ₹2.06. If the required imported natural gas still does not reach 120 per cent, the auction will stand cancelled.

No fresh auction will be conducted beyond the target PLF of 35 per cent. The bid for the PSDF ceiling support should be less than the applicable ceiling price.