The Bihar government has reached an agreement with NTPC for the transfer of state government-owned power generation assets to the Central power utility.
The MoU envisages transfer of Barauni thermal power station (720 mw) and transfer of Bihar State Power Generation Company’s (BSPGCL) equity in Kanti Bijlee Utpadan Nigam Ltd (KBUN) and Nabinagar Power Generating Company Pvt Ltd (NPGC), to NTPC. The transfer of these power stations to NTPC will result in their optimal and efficient utilization, bring the tariff down and benefit the people of Bihar at large, an official release said.
When seen in terms of equity held by Bihar government entities in the three power plants, the power generation capacity transferred to NTPC under this MoU stands at around 1,625 mw.
The MoU was reached amongst government of Bihar, Bihar State Power Holding Co Ltd, Bihar State Power Generation Co Ltd, North Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd, South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd, Bihar State Power Transmission Company Ltd, and NTPC Ltd on May 15, 2018, at Patna.
The details of the three power generation assets are as follows:
- The 720-mw Barauni thermal power station is located at Begusarai district in Bihar. The plant comprise of Stage-I (2×110-mw), which is advanced stage of R&M, and Stage-II (2×250 mw) that is under construction. NTPC is expected to complete the balance works and achieve sustained commercial operation of units in a time bound manner.
- Nabinagar Power Generating Company Pvt Ltd is a 50:50 joint venture company of NTPC Ltd and Bihar State Power Generation Co Ltd. The JV is developing a 1,980-mw Nabinagar super thermal power project in Bihar’s Aurangabad district. The project, currently under construction, envisages three supercritical power generation units of 660-mw each.
- Kanti Bijli Utpadan Nigam (KBUNL) owns and operates the Muzaffarpur Thermal Power Station (MTPS) (2×110 mw+ 2×195 mw) situated at Kanti, in Muzaffarpur district. The plant is currently under operation. KBUNL is a joint venture between NTPC (equity stake: 72.64 per cent) and Bihar State Power Generation Company (27.36 per cent).
All the three power generation facilities are envisaged to be transferred to NTPC from the effective date to be notified by Govt. of Bihar through a Statutory Transfer Scheme. Power from all the three power station shall be available to State of Bihar as before after approval by Ministry of Power, Govt. of India.
Central PSU NTPC, India’s largest power generating company, has a total installed capacity of 53,651 mw (including JVs) from coal, gas, hydro, solar and wind power projects. Besides, NTPC currently has 21,071 mw capacity under construction.
Photo Caption: The MoU was entered in the presence of Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar; R. K. Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and New & Renewable Energy; and Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Energy Minister, Government of Bihar; Pratyaya Amrit, Principal Secretary, Department of Energy, Government of Bihar; Gurdeep Singh, CMD, NTPC Ltd; Anand Kumar Gupta, Director (Commercial), NTPC; R. Lakshmanan, Managing Director, BSPGCL and other dignitaries.
