The Union government has given its nod to Eminent Electricity Distribution Limited to take over Chandigarh’s power supply department. The firm is likely to take over and start functioning from the end of March.
Chandigarh Adviser, Dharam Pal, while speaking to The Indian Express on Wednesday, said, “The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has given its approval to Eminent Electricity Distribution Limited to take over Chandigarh’s power department. The formalities of the transfer process have started and the firm will take over officially by the end of March.”
Several members of Chandigarh Powermen Union have been up in arms against the decision to hand over the electricity department to a private company.
The union, which fears that powermen might lose their jobs, had announced a three-day strike on Tuesday against the privatisation and have threatened to launch an indefinite strike from February 21 onwards if the decision is not rolled back.
Eminent Electricity Distribution Limited was finalised by the Chandigarh Administration as the firm that would take over its electricity department after the company emerged as the highest bidder for Chandigarh’s power privatization project ahead of six other companies which included the likes of Adani Transmission Limited, Tata Power, Torrent Power, Sterlite Power, Renew Wind Energy, and NESCl (NTPC). .Eminent had quoted a sum of Rs 871 crore against Rs 175 crore reserve price for the project.
Eminent Electricity Distribution Limited is a Kolkata-based company and is classified as a non-government company that is registered at Registrar of Companies, Kolkata.
Its authorized share capital is Rs 5,000,000,000 and its paid up capital is Rs. 4,600,500,200. The company is involved in production, collection and distribution of electricity.
Its parent company is the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) which is the Kolkata-based flagship company of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, born from the erstwhile RPG Group, under the chairmanship of businessman Sanjiv Goenka.
CESC is an Indian electricity generation and the sole distribution company serving 567 square kilometres (219 sq mi) of area administered by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, as well as parts of Howrah, Hooghly, 24 Parganas (North) and 24 Parganas (South) districts in the state of West Bengal.
It serves close to three million consumers approximately, which includes domestic, industrial and commercial users,according to reports available online.
Eminent electricity power company had made the highest bid of Rs 871 crore for Chandigarh’s power privatisation project, ahead of the likes of Adani Transmission Limited, and Tata Power.
On May 28 last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had put a stay order on the process of privatisation after a petition was filed in this regard by the Chandigarh Powermen Union.
The stay was challenged in the Supreme Court by the Chandigarh Administration, which had in turn last month vacated the stay order, thereby clearing the decks for Eminent to take over Chandigarh’s power distribution.
The decision to privatise power in Chandigarh was taken on the directions of the Centre on May 12, 2020.
There were several protests by the powermen union as they feared that privatisation of the electricity department will lead to many of them losing their jobs.
Chandigarh has no power generation of its own and has an annual consumption of around 400 Megawatts (MW). An amount of Rs 640 crore is spent every year for purchasing power for Chandigarh.
The Chandigarh power department purchases electricity at the rate of Rs 3.26 per unit.
The Chandigarh Administration buys its power through its allocation from Central generating stations (CGS): the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC), National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) and the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Ltd (THDC).
To meet the ever-increasing demand, which tends to shoot to its peak during summers, the electricity department sometimes procures un-requisitioned surplus power from different stations.
The department has a power purchase agreement (PPA) of 247MW. To meet the shortfall, un-requisitioned surplus power is usually purchased from power plants at Dadri, Jhajjar, Unchahar-I and Unchahar-II, among other plants.
At present, the power load of Chandigarh is fed from Kishangarh-based 3×100 MVA power transformers, Mohali’s 2×80 MVA transformers and via 66-kV line from Dhulkote.
There is one 220KV sub-station, around thirteen 66KV substations and five 33KV substations in the city.
Each sub-station has a lifespan of 25 years and around six of the 13 66KV substations have already completed their life spans.
In Chandigarh, there are nearly 2.47 lakh power consumers in different categories. Of them, 2.14 lakh, or about 87 per cent of the total number of consumers, fall in the domestic category.
Other categories involve commercial, small power, medium supply, bulk supply, large supply, public lighting, agriculture power, and temporary supply