Sasan UMPP postponement to cost Rs 418 crore to Madhya Pradesh

BHOPAL: Postponement in commissioning of fifth and sixth units of Sasan Ultra Mega Power Plant to February 2015 is likely to cost Madhya Pradesh about Rs 418 crore and participating states about Rs 1115.4 Cr, said All India Federation of Power Engineers.
Delay in commissioning of project will force MP and others states depending on Sasan power to purchase power at a higher cost from alternate sources to bridge its generation and demand gap.
Federation submitted a representation in this regards to union power minister and officials of the state government recently.
Earlier, in a report tabled in Madhya Pradesh Assembly on July 22, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said, MP Power Management Company, was deprived of cheap power from Sasan Power Ltd, for a period of 15 months due to postponement of commissioning date (COD) in all the six units of the project resulting in potential loss of Rs 1252.46 crore on account of purchase of power from other sources.
As per representation submitted by federation, Sasan officials informed in meetings of western region power committee (WRPC) held on June 26, this year, that 5th unit as well as the 6th unit will start operating from July and August 2014.
However, in agenda of the 463 meeting of operating committee of WRPC, commissioning date of the sixth unit of Sasan UMPP has been changed to February 2015. There has been delay of 46 days in commissioning of fifth unit also.
This postponement and delay of 46 days in unit five and six months in unit 6 implies a loss of power availability of 685 million units from unit 5 and 2695 million from unit 6. Thus up to end of Feb 2015 energy loss will be 3380 million units, claimed federation.
Taking average power purchase rate of Rs 4 per unit, and tariff of 70 p/unit availability from Sasan, the loss to states would be Rs 3.30 per unit, totaling to Rs 1115.4 crore, stated the federation representation. And Madhya Pradesh which has 37.5% share in power of Sasan will loose Rs 418 crore, it said.
"Besides having financial implications it upsets power purchase planning of procurer states," said chief patron of the AIPEF, Padamjit Singh.
"While planning, procurer states keep in mind power availability from Sasan units but if it is suddenly changed it leads to problems," Singh said.
Officials of MP Power Management Company however said postponement of Sasan UMMP units could be of just 2 months only, as the revised dates of starting the sixth unit of Sasan was December 2014. These are technical issues, though postponement in commissioning of units would definitely will have financial implications.