Top Story-Tariff-based bidding for power projects from Jan 5

20 Dec 2010 Evaluate

The Government has set January 5 as the cut-off date for power projects to shift to a tariff-based competitive bidding regime. The decision taken by a Group of Ministers on power sector issues effectively disallows future generation and transmission projects to enter into power purchase agreements based on the current ‘cost-plus', regulator-determined tariffs, a move that is expected to bring in transparency in the award of projects and drive down tariffs. The only exceptions, where the continuation of the ‘cost-plus' tariff has been allowed, are the expansion of already commissioned projects and multipurpose hydro projects.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) had in June firmly ruled in favour of shifting to a tariff-based competitive bidding regime for future power projects from January, citing better price discovery and lower retail tariffs. NTPC Ltd, the country's largest power generator, had been lobbying hard for an amendment to the Centre's tariff policy to permit continuation of the cost-plus tariff structure for public sector undertakings beyond the January deadline. Similar requests had also come in from other State-owned units, including NHPC Ltd and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd.

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