Power Sector News
Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) debut as power trader

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

There was new guest logged on to the country’s online platform for open trading in electricity : Jharkhand. On its first day at the trading platform set up by Financial Technologies (India) under the aegis of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) was able to sell 30MW to 80MW of extra power in 13 lean hours.K.N. Thakur, the JSEB chief engineer (commercial and revenue), was pleased that a beginning had been made. “We aren’t in a position now to say whether JSEB would be able to sell good quantity power all along. But this is a welcome revenue source,” he said. Jharkhand requires 650MW to 700MW of power daily, the low requirement an obvious indicator of the slow pace of development that has been the story of the politically unstable state. Also, electricity is yet to all villages.

JSEB gets around 125MW-130MW from thermal power generation unit at Patratu, 400MW from Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Limited (TVNL) and about 200MW from the central grid — adding up to 725-730MW power per day against a peak hour requirement of 650-700MW.

A company listed at the exchange, Moneykaran Power, will act as a broker on behalf of JSEB whenever it has surplus power to sell. But, as of now, buying is out of the question. Thakur conceded JSEB was cash-starved. “Even during peak hours, our demand isn’t much. So it won’t be wise to opt for power purchase through IEX which is costly.

It would be better to depend on long-term agreements through the central grid,” he said. A power exchange functions on the lines of commodity exchanges and provides a platform for buyers, sellers and traders to enter into spot and forward contracts