9 plants win 7.62 mmscmd gas at premium of Rs 18.29 cr

Nine power plants, including that of Dabhol, GMR and Lanco, on Sunday emerged as successful bidders

in the e-auction of natural gas, securing 7.62 mmscmd gas for running a total 5,942 mw capacity. With

the secured gas supplies, these plants will generate a total 6.79 billion units during six months to

September 2016 and save Rs 18.29 crore in government subsidy.

In the previous two auctions held in May and September last, the bidders had won government subsidy

of about Rs 2,750 crore to buy imported gas to revive stranded power plants. The e-auction was

conducted this morning which went on for almost two hours. Under the reverse e-auction, bidders

quoted negative subsidy, or premium of up to three paisa per unit to secure gas supplies.

“The government is delighted to announce the revival of 9 stranded gas-based power generation plants

with an installed capacity of 5,942 MW which have successfully bid through a transparent and

competitive reverse e-auction process,” Power Ministry said in a press release on Sunday. According to

the statement, these plants would generate 6.79 billion units of electricity, which will be supplied at or

below Rs 4.70 per unit to the purchaser discoms during the period from April 1 to September 30, 2016.

According to the bid results on MSTC Ltd website, the maximum quantity of 2.35 mmscmd gas was

booked by Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Ltd commonly know as Dabhol project, followed by Lanco

Kondapalli Power at 1.58 mmscmd and GMR Rajahmundry Energy at 1.09 mmscmd. Konaseema Gas

Power booked 0.71 mmscmd, Pioneer Gas Power at 0.55 mmscmd, GMR Vemagiri Power Generation at

0.52 mmscmd, Gama Infraprop Private Ltd at 0.35 mmscmd, GVK Industries at 0.32 mmscmd and

Sravanthi Energy at 0.25 mmscmd.

Power Ministry said that the auction process successfully concluded on March 20, 2016 wherein nine

plants emerged as preferred bidders and were allocated 7.62 mmscmd e-bid regasified liquid natural gas

(R-LNG) . It further said that the re-auction resulted in aggressive negative bidding with the lowest bid at

Rs 0.03 per unit. As a result there are estimated savings of Rs 18.29 crore to Government s Power

System Development Fund (PSDF). The present reverse e-auction for the Stranded Gas based Plants is

the third phase of auctions conducted under Scheme for Utilization of Stranded Gas Based Generation

Capacity.

The grid connected gas-based power generation capacity in the country is 24,150 MW. Of this, 14,305

MW had no supply of domestic gas. These comprise 29 plants which were eligible to participate in the

auction process held on Sunday, it said.

As many 11 plants with a cumulative installed capacity of 6,626 MW participated in the bidding for

Phase III. The successful bidders include power plants in southern areas. The Empowered Pool

Management Committee (EPMC), the nodal authority for this auction had decided to scrap the auction

for stranded gas-based power projects (SGP) held on Tuesday last in the backdrop of bids hitting zero

(subsidy) within minutes of the start of bidding.

NGS INDIA