Tamil Nadu: Tangedco to buy 500 MW from power trading corporation.

Tangedco is set to purchase 500 MW from the Power Trading Corporation of India (PTC) to meet the demand in the state in the current year. Tamil Nadu is estimated to face a power shortage of 2,396 MW this financial year as none of the new thermal projects of Tangedco are anywhere near commissioning.

To fill the demand-supply gap, Tangedco will purchase 500 MW from PTC India for three years at Rs. 3.26 per unit. The discom has been meeting the demand without power cuts through purchase from power exchange on a daily basis. Since the price in the exchange depends on the demand for power, the tariff goes up to Rs. 5 per unit.

The PTC will provide power supply from various private thermal power generation companies, which have the capacity but have not signed any power sale agreement with any discom.

Tangedco is meeting the demand from the installed capacity of conventional sources of 14,783 MW of which Tangedco’s own capacity is 4,320MW. Gas accounts for 516MW, independent power projects 416 MW and share from Central units 6,151MW. Long term power purchase agreements have been signed for 2,830 MW and medium term agreements have been signed for 550 MW.

“If we consider a plant load factor of 85% for various power sources, the net availability is a little over 13,000 MW and if the demand is around 15000 MW, the remaining power is met through purchase from market or through short term agreements,” said a senior Tangedco official.

To reduce purchase from market, Tangedco sought permission from TNERC to purchase 500 MW from PTC.

The clearance was given a few days ago.

“The first unit of Neyveli New TPP, which was commissioned in January, is yet to stabilise and we are expecting 600 MW from that unit. The ongoing projects at Ennore SEZ, STPS, Udangudi, Uppur and ETPS Expansion are getting delayed.

“At present, the deficit experienced during peak hours and due to outages of generation plants are met through hydro generation and purchase of power from power exchanges,” said the official.

Recently, the discom had decided to purchase 500 MW of solar power to fulfil its renewable power purchase obligation.

ET