With differences over the operation and maintenance (O&M) charges and the gross heat rate issues in the power purchase agreement (PPA) sorted out, NTPC is all set to ink agreement for the execution of the proposed 2X250 MW Sampur power project in Trincomale, Sri Lanka, by early next month.
A series of meetings between the officials Ministry of Power, Sri Lankan Government, senior officials of NTPC and with assistance of the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Ashok Kantha, has finally led to resolution of the outstanding issues and the project is all set to take off with the formal signing of the PPA by next month. “NPTC is all set to take up the project in right earnest. We have only last week deputed a senior official to be posted in Sri Lanka for the project. All issues have been resolved and we are hopeful that a formal agreement will be signed in the first or second week of June,” a senior official who refused to be identified told The Hindu .
Indicating a resolution to the contentious issues, the Chairman and Managing Director, NTPC, Arup Roy Choudhury, in his letter to Secretary, Power, Sri Lanka Government, M. M. C. Ferdinando, had stated that with respect to gross heat rate, it was proposed that the heat rate during the interim period shall be taken as 2600 Kcal/kWh as per the initiated PPA. Thereafter, the gross heat rate will be determined as per principles suggested by the Sri Lankan government. “With respect to O&M charges, it is proposed that O&M charges for the first three years shall be maintained as agreed in the initiated PPA and thereafter it should be based on actual audited and certified O&M charges as suggested by the Sri Lankan Government,” Mr. Choudhury states in his letter.
The urgency to resolve the issues came after the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka sent an urgent communication to the Secretary, Power, P. Umashankar, on March 20 seeking the intervention of the Ministry to impress upon NTPC to resolve the issue without any further delay.
