Tata, Adani may sell electricity on power exchanges | Economic Times

The power ministry is preparing to issue a statutory order allowing two plants with an aggregate capacity of 8,000 megawatts (MW) at Mundra in Gujarat to sell electricity on the power exchanges, in a bid to ease the coal and power supply situation, a senior official told ET.Projects on India’s western coast, including these two 4,000 MW plants run by Tata Power and Adani Power, use imported coal, but are not operating now in the absence of compensation for high fuel cost, the official said.Email queries sent to Tata Power and Adani Power remained unanswered till as of press time.However, industry experts said such a move is possible.Power prices at the day-ahead market of the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) have peaked at `20 per unit, the upper limit on power exchanges, due to desperate buy by distribution utilities.The average price is hovering around Rs 9 per unit against Rs 2.95 per unit in July. Industry executives said Gujarat is buying the maximum — 4,000-5000 MW — from IEX, followed by Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.Data as on August 26 showed that power plants with total generating capacity of 89 GW have low coal stock.Other coal-based power plants, in response to the Centre’s call on Friday to explore coal imports, have said imported coal is not available off the shelf and it takes at least 60 days from the time an order is placed.The Centre is holding a key meeting with Gujarat officials on Monday to discuss utilisation of two 4,000-MW capacity imported coal projects, the official said.The official said the Gujarat officials will be asked at the meeting on Monday if they require the power from these imported coal-based projects.