No fixed charges for 3 private plants

Patiala, March 31

The Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) will not be paying fixed charges to private thermal and biomass power generators as it has invoked forced majeure clause under Article 12 of the power purchase agreement (PPA) following load crash in the state after the declaration of a lockdown in the country. The spread of Covid has hit the power sector badly with the 21-day lockdown estimated to cause roughly over Rs 500-crore loss.

Already under losses, the PSPCL is suffering about Rs25 crore loss per day due to the steep fall in demand and fixed charges to be paid to private thermal plants despite not using the power produced by them.

Sources said the PSPCL in its notice to three power generators of thermal plants at Talwandi Sabo, Rajpura and GVK besides biomass generators had stated that under force majure clause 12 of the PPA between PSPCL and thermal power generators, it will not be declaring its day-ahead scheduling under the grid code and for any power supply made during this period, no payment will not be made. A force majure notice can be given by either party within seven days of its occurrence of such conditions.

The PSPCL will be saving Rs20 crore of fixed charges daily during the force majure period till normalcy is restored. As per the contract, the PSPCL is to pay fixed charges even if it does not purchase power due to any reason.

PSPCL CMD Baldev Singh Sran said, “The savings will help save our state residents from bearing additional cost of power.” — TNS