New Delhi, August 9
The National Power Committee (NPC) has asked States to provide suggestions for offering incentives to buyers and sellers on the surplus power portal, PUSHp, to encourage wider participation, which has been found missing.
The portal is a national-level generating capacity utilisation mechanism to help States, which are facing power cuts, buy power. The tariffs are regulated and determined by the concerned regulatory commissions. Power crisis is generally observed during the months of April, May, September and October.
The NPC, which met on July 5, decided that regional power committees (RPCs) may provide suggestions for improving PUSHp portal to make it more attractive in terms of offering incentives to buyers and sellers, especially for units under reserve shut down (RSD) and intimate NPC for taking up with Power Ministry for modification in the scheme.
PUSHp portal, which was launched on March 9, 2023 and began power transactions on April 3, has seen 17 States utilising it. So far, 14 requests have been processed and the power has been reallocated to the new beneficiaries.
The high level panel, which is headed by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) chairman, pointed out that there is a lack of participation from the States of northern region (NR), eastern region (ER) and limited requisition to avail the surplus power available on the portal from all regions.
On enhancing participation of States, the panel decided that eastern region power committee (ERPC) and northern region power committee (NRPC) may encourage states to utilise the portal.
On discussions over participation of States in the portal, The NRPC Chairperson said that Discoms hesitate to sell power in the open market due to PPA restrictions.
Last year (2022), Haryana Discoms began making profits and started buying power from the open market, resulting in State Generating Stations (SGS) units with sufficient coal storage remaining under RSD due to low scheduling, as cheaper power is available in the open market. These SGS units with sufficient coal storage, under RSD, could be made to assist in meeting the peak demand of other States and national grid.
To which the CEA Chairperson suggested that such SGS can declare their surplus power on the PUShP Portal and, these plants can be revived from reserve shutdown to meet the demand of other states/regions of the country.
Besides, it also decided that generating units of central generating stations (CGS), inter state generating stations (ISGS), SGS and independent power producers (IPPs) that are currently under RSD due to low schedule/ demand can declare their surplus power on the PUShP Portal.
“Such plants may be revived from reserve shutdown to meet the demand of the other states/ regions of the country. Provisions may be made to allow buyers to put their requirements on the portal,” it added.