The residents of Bihar might not have to feel the pinch of power crisis during the festive season, as Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) is likely to sign an agreement to purchase about 300MW of power from the open market to supply electricity from September to November.
Four prominent power companies have submitted their bids to sell 300MW through competitive bidding in response to the power-starved BSEB’s tender to purchase electricity from the open market.
It has decided to purchase power from the open market to meet the state’s energy requirement in the short span of time as the commissioning of new power plants, which include its own generation units and memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NTPC and others for generation, would take time due to their long gestation period.
Besides this, renovation and modernisation work of the state’s own Barauni and Kanti thermal plants would be completed only after June 2012. The four companies which have expressed interest and have submitted bids include Tata Power, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam, PTC India Ltd (formerly known as Power Trading Corporation of India Ltd) and Mittal Processor, a top BSEB official wishing not to be quoted told.
Bids would be opened very soon sources said, adding that the board expects to sign an MoU for purchase of few hundreds of megawatts if it matches the board’s price.
“We have received a good number of response to our tender and on that basis we are quite hopeful of signing agreement for at least 150 to 200MW if not for all 300MW,†a source said.