Govt to take 300MW power from India’s NTPC

Government has awarded neighbouring India’s state-owned power producer NTPC a contract for 15 years to supply 300 megawatt power.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of India’s biggest power producer, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam emerged as the lowest bidder in the tender invited by Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

PTI quoting a NTPC statement said this, adding that the BPDB had invited tenders for supply of 500MW power from India for short term (Jun 1, 2018 to Dec 31, 2019) and long term (Jan 1, 2020 to May 31, 2033).

Three companies NTPC, PTC and Singapore-based Sembcorp submitted bids.

NTPC, without giving details of the rate at which power will be supplied, said the supply of electricity is likely to start in June after the commissioning of 500MW HVDC inter-connection project between India and Bangladesh.

The report, however, cited a source to note that the company expects annual revenue of nine billion rupees at an estimated tariff of 3.42 rupees per unit.

India’s next-door neighbour Bangladesh at present imports some 660MW of electricity from India.

Meanwhile, Indian Power Minister RK Singh while addressing a conference organised by NTPC in New Delhi on Tuesday said India will explore foreign markets like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal for its surplus power generation capacity.

PTI says his comments assume significance as the average PLF (plant load factor) or capacity utilisation in India is around 60 per cent. “We can run our plants at 80 per cent PLF, but coal is a constraint. It does not make sense to import coal when we have sufficient coal underground. We need to build more railway lines to transport coal,” he noted.

Also, he said, “We need to explore foreign markets like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Demand is there. We need to access that. They are short of power”.