Buoyed by a good response for the first tender of mid-term (3 years) power purchase agreement auction, the Power Ministry will bring its second round for 2,500 MW capacities to give relief to stressed power assets, Power Secretary A K Bhalla said on Tuesday.

A PPA is a prerequisite for getting coal supplies for power plants. Power sector is facing stress due to coal shortage and other issues. Many power projects are starving for coal in the absence of PPAs. The government’s scheme to auction 2,500 MW medium-term PPAs evoked good response and PPAs for 1,900 MW capacities were signed under the scheme last month.

“We found that a lot of interest is coming up for (the scheme to auction) 2,500 MW medium-term PPAs. So definitely there would be PPAs coming up (on the block). This was a pilot. We will try to bring a formal scheme for another round of 2,500 MW medium-term PPAs.

“We did not have difference between fixed cost and variable cost. There was no escalation (of tariff). Those points will be discussed. Whatever (issues) stakeholders have raised, will be discussed,” he said.

The Power Ministry in April 2018 had issued guidelines for a pilot scheme to facilitate aggregation of procurement of power (2,500 MW for 3 years) from commissioned coal-based power plants through competitive bidding.

When asked about bringing another version of Shakti scheme, he said: “The Shakti scheme is (already) there. People can always get coal. All those who don’t have PPAs can take coal linkage under Shakti and look for PPAs in two years time.”

Shakti stands for Scheme to Harness and Allocate Koyla (Coal) Transparently in India. The objective of the scheme is to auction long-term coal linkages to power companies.

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