Since the formation of Jharkhand, majority of thermal power majors signing MoUs with the Government have either turned their eye away from the State or are languishing without making any headway. Barring half-fired operation of Adhunik Power and Inland Power no other project expected to take off in the State has seen any light.
Industry people and those inside the Government have started getting a feel that growing cost of power generated through coal and simultaneously lowering tariff of renewable sources, especially of solar energy are the major factors contributing to the sector’s woes.
“Every thing is stagnant. Our wait to get statuatary clearances, land acquisition, coal linkages and other permission is getting longer. This is not only taking a dig on the input cost expected but putting pressure on our management to think twice before investing any further,” said a senior official of Essar Power.
The company having invested over Rs 4,500 crore at Tori is still awaiting fresh coal linkage after the de-allocations done and environmental clearances for its 1800 WM plant despite reaching at advanced stage of construction long back.
Host of private players having signed power purchase agreements (PPA) with the State Government somewhere six to eight years ago are in quandary at present since cost of power generation has escalated.
“We had signed PPA in 2010 at Rs 2.64 per unit whereas the cost of thermal power generation is not going to be lesser than Rs 5-6 per unit now. We have to take into consideration the delay which is adding to the investment itself,” said a senior manager of a power company.
At the same time the industry is worried over paradigm shift coming in terms of power generation policy of the Government both at the Center and the State level. Recent advent of slipping solar power tariff and the Government stressing more and more over non-carbon sources, future of thermal power plants has turned even bleaker.
“This is true and the Government is promoting clean sources of energy. Earlier the cost coming on setting up solar power plants and per unit cost of power generated was quite high which has been a discouraging factor. But now the tariff of solar power has come down to Rs 2.44 per unit which is lower than thermal power. Also there is no pollution related issues or carbon sink,” said JBVNl Managing Director Rahul Purwar.
However Energy Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni was quick to add that solar power rate recently quoted in Rajasthan was due to the Government making available land for free. “This has to be done here. Also it is possible only with small chunks of land in the State. In any case the renewable source of energy is slowly but surly to replace traditional sources,” he added.
Except upcoming coal based plants of NTPC at Badkagaon and recently acquired PTPS at Patratu, there is no new project running at its pace in Jharkhand despite the State sitting on one of the largest coal reserves of the country. At the same the JBVNl is under glare for purchasing power at higher cost as the Power Ministry has gone public offering power at Rs 2.60 per unit rate.
“There have been some legacy agreements like we have the one with the DVC which is costing us dearly. We are in the process to correct the anomalies existing in PPA. As far as PPA with private players is concerned only 189 MW from Adhunik and 58 MW from Inland Power is being purchased presently against nearly 2100 MW of need. This also due to the PPA signed much before,” said an official of the Energy Department.