Coal news and updates

9 preferred bidders emerge in gas reverse auction

As many as nine plants emerged as preferred bidders and were allocated 7.62 MMSCMD of gas in reverse auction conducted by the Ministry of Power on March 20, 2016.

These plants have stranded gas-based power generation facilities with an installed capacity of 5,942 MW.

In the reverse auction there is an estimated savings of Rs 18.29 crore to the government’s Power System Development Fund.

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 April 1, 2016 to September 30, 2016.

Previously, an e-auction was held on March 15, 2016, wherein bidders participated in reverse e-bidding process with ‘per unit’ PSDF ceiling price of Rs 0.41 per unit. However, the bidders did not get an opportunity to bid below Rs 0 per unit, as option for the same was not built in. In light of the fact that the bidders were not provided such an opportunity and the sufficient competition might not have been generated, a re–auction was conducted.

The re-auction resulted in aggressive negative bidding with the lowest bid at Rs 0.03 per unit.

The present reverse e-auction for the stranded gas-based plants is the third phase of the auctions conducted under the Scheme for Utilisation of Stranded Gas-Based Generation Capacity.

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

Of this, a capacity of 14,305 MW had no supply of domestic gas. These comprise 29 plants which were eligible to participate in the auction process held today. A number of 11 plants, with a cumulative installed capacity of 6,626 MW, participated in the bidding for phase III.