Govt floats tender to procure gas-based plants

In order to purchase 4 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from gas-based power plants during the peak demand months of April and May, the Electricity Ministry published a tender on Sunday. The state-run power producer NTPC's subsidiary, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), issued a Request for Supply (RfS) for the purchase of electricity.

During the defined crunch period, NVVN has been designated as a nodal agency to facilitate the supply of 4,000 megawatts (MW) of power from GBP units (April 10 to May 16, 2023). The Day Ahead Market (DAM) would be sufficiently supplied as a result, which is anticipated to moderate the clearing price, according to the RfS paper.

In a power exchange, the Day-Ahead-Market (DAM) is a physical electricity trading market for deliveries for any/some/all 15-minute time blocks in the following day's 24-hour period beginning at midnight.

The document further said that chosen bidders would be qualified to participate in the opening of price bids, a reverse auction, and bucket filing for the purpose of granting Letters of Award (LOA) through an open, competitive bidding procedure.

The bidders will be chosen on March 25 after the deadline for submission of proposals. On March 27, the pricing bids from eligible bidders will be revealed. By April 6, 2023, the contract between the chosen bidders and NVVN will have been signed. The Letter of Award (LoA) will be released on March 30.