Goa sells surplus power

Sandesh Prabhudesai
16 August 2001  

Following West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh, Goa becomes the third state to sell its surplus power to the needy states.

An agreement in this regard was signed on Thursday with the Power Trading Corporation of India Ltd by the state government, for the period of one year.

Though its major power supply of around 357 MW comes from the western and southern grids of the National Thermal Power Corporation, at least 80 to 100 MW of power was going waste due to non-utilisation all these years.

Meanwhile, the NTPC decided to charge the states even for non-utilised power from October this year. The state thus rushed into signing the agreement with the government-controlled PTCIL.

As per the agreement, the PTCIL will purchase the power from Goa at the rate of Rs 2.45 per unit while paying the tourist state Rs 1.33 per unit and then selling it to the needy state.

"There are many buyers in the baskets and negotiations are on with several states", said T N Thakur, the CMD of the PTCIL. He is expecting to finalise the deal within few days.

The PTCIL is already buying around 200 MW from West Bengal at Rs 1.80 per unit and selling it to Delhi and Haryana at Rs 2.35 per unit. Similarly, 70 MW of power is being purchased from a private generator in Himachal Pradesh at Rs 2.45 and sold to Delhi at Rs 2.61 per unit.

Chief minister Manohar Parrikar is however quite happy with the deal as the cash-starved state will get minimum Rs 60 crore in its kitty annually. He has been generating funds through all possible means, after taking over empty coffers in November last year.

According to power minister Digambar Kamat, the state may not need additional power at least for the next one year, as several power guzzlers like ferro alloy units or steel rolling mills are either closing down or reducing its power requirement.

The present requirement of the industrially backward state is hardly 220 MW at peak load hours and 110 MW at off peak load hours. Its estimated requirement by 2007 is around 350 MW and 550 MW by 2012.

The state however is depending upon the completion of a new sub-station coming up in North Goa, named after former union power minister late P Kumarmangalam, which will increase Goa's transmission capacity in many folds.

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