The Jammu and Kashmir power development corporation has finalised a deal with its Uttar Pradesh counterpart for sale of electricity generated from 450-MW Baglihar-II, more than 20 months after the project started generation on commercial lines.
“The contract has been finalised. We have asked the Uttar Pradesh power corporation limited (UPPCL) to place the order immediately and also requested the UP power ministry to ensure that the contract is honoured,” managing director PDC, Shah Faesal told Greater Kashmir.
As per the contract details, the PDC will be selling 272-MW electricity for May and September at Rs 4.29 per-unit to the UPPCL and 35-MW for three months each from June at Rs 4.04 per-unit.
“We have offered them to purchase 272-MW for June, July and August as well and are hopeful that the deal will be through,” said Faesal.
The peak generation period for the project is between April and September. While the PDC will be selling 60 percent of the energy from the project through power trading corporation (PTC), it has committed the remaining 40 percent of the energy to the power development department (PDD).
A part of the revenue generated from the project would go into the clearance of the debit raised earlier for construction of the project. The PDC had successfully run the project on trial basis in September 2015 and started commercial operations from April next year. However it failed to find buyers for the power generated from the project for 20 months, mainly due to availability of hydro-power in the market at much cheaper rates, resulting in losses to the corporation and forcing it to sell the electricity generated from the project at much lower rates to the PDD.
A senior official said that though it was a short term contract with the UPPCL, they were hopeful that the agreement would be extended.
“More importantly, this contract will help us to save the losses when the peak generation season starts next April. It was a big worry,” said the official.