Rosa units stops generation for non-payment of dues

V K Gupta
06 July, 2012
Reliance has closed its thermal units at Rosa as UPPCL was not able to clear dues and sell power @ Rs. 5 per unit under open access.
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THE GENERATION from two units of 1200 MW Rosa Power Plant in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh has been stopped due to non- payment of dues by power utility.

According to sources, Reliance opted for curtailing the power generation after UP power companies failed to make payment running into hundreds of crores. Unit 1 and 4 of thermal plant were manually closed on July 4. Unit no. 2 has been closed down due to coal shortage problem on July 6. The power plant produced only 11 lac units on Thursday.

Sources added that UP power utility is to make a payment of about Rs. 350 crore. Earlier the defaulting amount rose to Rs. 500 crore and power utility made a payment of about Rs. 150 crores.

Reliance had signed power purchase agreement with UP Power Corporation Ltd. for supply of power to the state of Uttar Pardesh. It has been estimated that this project would light up 30 lac households of state.

As per NRLDC daily report, UP has a total generation capacity of 9975 MW but the generation from these projects is around 4000 MW. Amongst all the Northern States, the power shortage is maximum in UP and duration of power cuts is longest. However the Rosa thermal station was operating with the help of high cost imported coal which resulted in a power tariff of Rs 5 per unit. The UPPCL was unable to pay the power purchase bills of Rosa as the financial position is critical. Last year UPPCL purchased over 300 Crores worth of power from Himachal Pradesh but has not paid for it yet.

It may be added that even if UPPCL was unable to pay the bills of Rosa, Reliance could have sold its power from Rosa to any buyer utility in the country through open access. However with an energy rate of Rs 5 per unit there would be no buyers as the prevailing rate is less than Rs 4 per unit and reducing due to impact of monsoon leading to better frequency.