As the Mihan SEZ is yet to get going, city based Abhijeet Group which has formed a joint venture company with MADC to set up a power plant for captive supply to this ambitious venture, has now struck a deal with Reliance Power Trading Company to sell electricity generated from the first unit of its plant.
The Abhijeet MADC Nagpur Energy Private Limited is coming up with a 241 MW power plant with four units of 61.5 MW each. Generation in the first unit started around four days ago and has been synchronized with the grid. A senior official of the company said that "Full-fledged production of 61 MW is expected to start within a fortnight.”
Sources in the company revealed that there are good chances that all the power generated from April next here will be sold in the open market as there's unlikely to be much demand in Mihan. The second unit is expected to start by January and the remaining two in March and April.
The official said that "The power plant was set up with the aim of providing power to the industries coming up in Mihan. We were expecting that there would be a demand of at least 50MW. However, we are now exercising the option of supplying power in the open market.”
Abhijeet Group would be selling power at INR 4 per unit to Reliance while the rates were pegged at INR 2.92 with MADC. The official added that "The MADC remains our priority client and we will shift our focus to Mihan once it gets going. Selling in the open market is always a profitable proposition than being a captive vendor as it fetches higher rates."
With a coal supply allocation from Western Coalfields Limited yet to be cleared, currently the company is buying the fuel from open market. Sources said that a linkage of over 1 million tonnes has been done in the name MADC as it had initially moved the application. However, with this joint venture company operating the plant, the allocation will have to be transferred to its name. The official said that "This will need an endorsement by the ministry of coal based on an application by MADC, which is the original allottee.”
(Sourced from Times of India)
