Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said on Monday, 1 January, that the state has acquired the Goindwal thermal power plant, which used to be owned by GVK Power, for a price of Rs 1,080 crore.
CM Mann said that the purchase is expected to reduce the overall tariff by over Rs 1 per unit, resulting in savings of Rs 300–350 crore on power purchases.
The chief minister said that the state government was purchasing private power plants for the first time, and that it was a departure from the previous practice of selling assets to preferred individuals at a 'throw away' price.
"The available capacity of the power plant was 61 percent, whereas it was used only up to 34 percent, but now it will be run at 75–80 percent, thereby augmenting the power generation in the state. With this, 33 percent (one out of three with private thermals) of power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been terminated," said CM Mann.
Mann also said that the 540-Megawatt (MW) Goindwal power plant has been purchased at a lower price of Rs 2 crore per MW, compared to other acquisitions at Rs 3 crore per MW.
The plant will reportedly be renamed to Sri Guru Amardass Thermal Power Plant.
Mann further said that the Bathinda and Ropar thermal power plants were permanently closed on 1 January 2018, but on 1 January 2024, the "pro-people" government purchased a private power plant to increase the state's power supply.
(With IANS Inputs.)
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