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The private power companies feel that the two ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) are not ready to be put up for bidding.
“I do not think the UMPPs are ready for bidding today. In the new norms, the land has to be acquired within six months. That has not been done. Also, the liberalised coal policy is not in place. We feel that today looking at the position of Odisha project; we are not in a condition to bid for it,” said Ashok Khurana, Director General of the Association of Power Producers, which represents 20 private power developers.
Government is gearing up to bid out 4,000 MW each UMPPs in Tamil Nadu and Odisha.
The new standard bidding documents (SBDs) for these kind of mega power projects make it compulsory for the developer to buy equipment from domestic manufacturers such as BHEL, L&T, Alstom-Bharat Forge, among others.
“We have objected to it. This is because no domestic manufacturer has proven plant for past five-six years in making 660 mw equipments. Also, the exposure ratio has been saturated for all the bankers. They may not have that much money available with them,” Khurana said.
The private players fear that if Government bars them from buying equipment from overseas, the foreign banks and financial institutions would not been keen to fund these stations.
On Friday, the APP has met the Power Secretary P K Sinha to discuss several hiccups to the power sector such as non conclusion of long term power purchase agreements (PPAs), difficulty in converting provisional mega status to final mega status, operationalisation of CCEA decision on pass through of additional coal cost, and clearances to coal blocks, among others.
“We have 18000 mw of power assets ready without power purchase agreements. In the past three years 30,000 mw of bids were called for PPAs, but only 2,000 mw were signed,” Khurana said.
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