The Telangana State Energy officials held a meeting with representatives from the Hinduja National Power Corporation Limited (HNPCL) on Wednesday, over renewal of the power purchase agreement signed with the company 16 years ago.
With the commissioning of the company’s 1,040 MW power plant in Visakhapatnam around the corner, the aim of the meeting was to thrash out finer details of the agreement to be renewed, informed the Chairman and Managing Director of the TSSPDCL G.Raghuma Reddy.
The earlier agreement was signed in 1998, before the Electricity Act came into being, hence there is a need to rework the agreement as per the Act, he said.
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The discom had prepared a draft copy and shared it with the HNPCL officials, in which the latter reportedly sought some changes. The meeting held on Wednesday, after repeated postponements sought by HNPCL, discussed various issues related to the amendments.
Matters where the two parties could not find common ground would be referred to the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission, Mr. Reddy said.
He refuted reports that senior level officials from the HNPCL who attended the meeting, refused to sign the minutes copy of the meeting.
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The PPA to be signed with the HNPCL becomes crucial for the Telangana State, in view of the power demand set to escalate in the oncoming Rabi crop season. The company was to commission its first unit of 520 MW in December, which has been postponed, reportedly due to the Cyclone Hudhud which devastated the coast line.
Though the MoU with the government was signed in early 1990s, the Visakhapatnam project ran into many hurdles eventually.
The project was revived in 2009-10.