The US-based multinational, General Electric (GE), on Thursday offered to set up a 2,400 megawatt (MW) gas-based power plant in Punjab, delivering power to consumers at Rs 4.81 per unit only.
The offer was made by the corporate giant to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh during a meeting on Thursday evening.
Chief Minister asked the company’s CEO Deepesh Nanda to submit a comprehensive proposal within a fortnight and set up a five-member committee to examine the same comprising Invest Punjab CEO, Powercom Director (Technical), Powercom Director (Finance), a nominee of Principal Secretary Finance, along with Additional CEO Invest Punjab Rajat Aggarwal as its convener.
The committee has been mandated to recommend to the Government the model (IPP or EPC) for setting up of the plant. It will also look into the issue of selection of site for the plant, for which the Chief Minister has suggested a location near Ropar, in place of the existing 35-year old thermal plant which had outlived its utility.
The company has offered to set up the plant anywhere in the State to ensure uninterrupted and cheap power to the industry, but preferably in a region with an existing pipeline network.
He also expressed desire to associate with the State Government for setting up gas power plants at load centers at ludhiana and Amritsar, either on Independent Power Producer (IPP) or Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) model.
Capt Amarinder felt the proposed gas plant would give a fillip to the State Government's plan to develop Kandi region as an industrial zone, along with the foothills of Shivalik.
He also asked the committee to study the feasibility of developing gas-based power plants in the load centres of ludhiana and Amritsar to cater the perpetually growing power demand of industries in these cities.
The high-powered GE delegation, led by Nanda, earlier made a detailed presentation to the Chief Minister on its proposal. Nanda pointed out that gas power plants had emerged as an effective, green alternative to the conventional coal-based ones, and these were also more economically viable as they required up to 35 acres less land.
Further, gas based power plants required just 20 months for completion as compared to at least 48 months in case of thermal plants, which also makes these projects cost effective, he added.