Haryana ranks second in short term power purchases
V K Gupta
01 August, 2012
Haryana is resorting to power purchases despite capacity additions, as Chinese made turbines of three units are under repair. In addition to this, one unit has been closed due to shortage of coal.
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HARYANA IS the second highest power purchaser in the country after Punjab, as it has been making daily short term power purchases of about 330 lac units.

Haryana Government had claimed at the start of this financial year that there will be no power cuts in summer as enough generating capacity addition has been made. This included 85 % share in CLP 1320 MW Jhajjar thermal. The states’ own generation on paper was 5050 MW showing a comfortable power position.

The assessment of Haryana government went haywire with the forced closure two thermal units of 300 MW each at Yamuna Nagar and one 600 MW thermal unit at Khedar. It may be mentioned that Yamuna Nagar and Khedar thermal plants have been built by Reliance with Chinese equipment. Further newly commissioned 1320 MW units at Jhajjar faced coal problem from inception. The units remained un-operational for months together for want of coal. Even now only one unit is operating at jhajjar.

The power demand rose beyond their expectations this year and the position worsened with the delayed and below normal monsoon. According to official records short term purchase in last 10 days before grid failures was about 342 million units. These included power purchase through bilateral arrangements, from power exchanges and by over drawing from northern grid.

The average short term purchase of 331 lac units included 195 lac units arranged by traders through bilateral arrangements. The direct bilateral power purchase is around 23 lac units. The average daily power purchase through power exchange has been around 26 lac units. The average power purchase cost through power exchange in last 10 days works was about Rs. 5 per unit.

The average overdrawing from northern grid was more than 100 lac units. It varied between 88 to 190 lac units, as per NRLDC record. Haryana has been making power purchases through 8 vendors and major of them are Power trading Corporation ( about 70 %) , Haryana Power purchase Centre (9.94%) , Mittal (6.3%) and TPTCL (5.85%). The major share of about 33% is coming from HPSEB followed by JK UCL (21.67%).