Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann recently dedicated the Sri Guru Amar Dass Thermal Plant, which was purchased by the state government from a private company, to the people. During the occasion, Chief Minister Mann said the state government has bought a 540-megawatt private thermal power plant at Goindwal Sahib.
Power plant to save Rs 300-350 crore on power purchases
The power plant that was earlier owned by a private company, GVK Power, has been bought for Rs 1,080 crore, he said. The Chief Minister further stated that this purchase of the power plant will lead to savings of Rs 300-350 crore on power purchases, thereby benefiting the consumers of the state.
Know all about thermal power plant
The 540-MW thermal power plant is an independent power plant and is spread over 1,100 acres of land in Goindwal Sahib in Tarn Taran.
The state government has purchased the solar power now at Rs 2.54 paise per unit, whereas during the earlier tenures, an exorbitant amount of even Rs 15 was paid for the same purchase.
The plant has been purchased from the private company GVK Power at a cost of Rs 1,080 crore.
The power plant has been renamed as Sri Guru Amardass Thermal Power Plant, after the third Sikh Guru.
Currently, the available capacity of the power plant is 61 per cent, while it was used only at 34 per cent of capacity, and it will now run at 75-80 per cent of its capacity, thereby augmenting the power generation in the state.
Overall power tariff will be reduced by Rs 1 per unit
The state government said that the purchase of the power plant will help in the reduction in overall power tariff by over Rs 1 per unit while also resulting in savings of Rs 300-350 crore on power purchases, thereby benefiting electricity consumers.
The plant will also help in higher power generation due to the availability of coal from the Pachhwara coal mine, as the Plant Load Factor (PLF) is likely to go up to 75 to 80 per cent against the average Plant Load Factor (PLF) of 34 per cent so far.
In the beginning, a PPA for a 500 MW plant was signed in 2000. Thereafter an MOU for a 540 MW plant was signed in 2006, followed by an amended PPA for 540 MW in 2009.
This project was commissioned in 2016, and, to purchase it, PSPCL, along with 11 other contenders, namely Jindal Power, Adani Power, Vedanta Group, Rashmi Metaliks, Sherisha Technologies, Sai Wardha Power, Megha Engineering and Infrastructures, India Coke and Power Pvt. Ltd., RKG Fund (RKG Trust), KLu Resources and Capri Global Holdings and Pvt Ltd., submitted their applications in February 2023, after which PSPCL finally acquired it.
However, between 2016 and 2023, the state government had purchased 11,165 million units of power by paying Rs 7,902 crore, Rs 7.08 per unit, to the power plants.
The state government said that with the acquisition of this plant, the state now has three government and two private-run and operational thermal plants.
