21 companies show interest in power plant at Gidderbaha

The response for this thermal plant has been better in view of a new clause of the selected developer allowed to sell 30 per cent of the power from the project as merchant power. This new provision,which makes the project more profitable,would be included in the bidding documents for this project,subject to approval of the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC).

Larsen and Toubro,Sterlite,Tata Power,Lanco,GVK,Jindal Power and Jai Parkash Industries were among the top power companies which participated in the expression of interest conference,hosted by the Punjab Power Corporation (Powercom).

Powercom chairman and managing director Anurag Aggarwal said the response to the thermal plant has been very encouraging and hoped that as many companies would participate in the bidders’ conference to be held later.

“We received good response. Soon we would float the request for qualification (RFQ) document,enabling various companies to qualify for the bidding process,” he said.

The Punjab government will procure 2,640 MW power on long term basis through competitive bidding under case-II of the tariff-based bidding guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Power to meet the power requirement of the state.

Gidderbaha Thermal Power Project is located at village Ghagga,Theri and Babania near Gidderbaha town in Muktsar district of Punjab.

Thursday’s conference,chaired by Punjab State Power Corporation CMD Anurag Aggarwal,who is also the CMD of Gidderbaha Power Limited,was also attended by G S Chhabra,Member,Generation,S C Arora,Director,Finance,GPL and V K Malhotra,Director,Technical,GPL.

GPL has appointed PFC Consulting Limited (PFCCL),a wholly-owned subsidiary of Power Finance Corporation Limited,New Delhi,as the consultant for the project and was represented by its Chief Executive Officer Dinesh Vij  during the discussions with the representatives of prospective bidders.

The bidders would be selected through a tariff-based international competitive bidding. The bidding process consists of two stages — in the first stage,request for qualification requirements of bidders will be made and in the second,proposal will be requested.