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'No proposal to Enron to cut power cost'

The Maharashtra government has not yet approached the Enron Corporation, the main promoter of the Dabhol Power Company in the state, with any specific proposal to reduce the cost of the power available at the 740-mw plant at Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, according to DPC sources.

Sources said that there have been frequent informal meetings between the officials of DPC and the Maharashtra State Electricity Board on various issues which include payment of pending bills of about Rs 3 billion since October last year.

Owing to the recent fall in international naphtha prices to $170 per metric tonne, sources said that the impact on the cost of electricity would be realised only in the month of February because the present low-cost naphtha would be used as feedstock only in the coming month.

The price per kwh electricity would be eased to below Rs 4 (Rs 3.98 per kwh) provided the MSEB maintains a despatch level of about 90 per cent of the production.

As per latest figures, MSEB picked up power at 49 per cent in October at a price of Rs 6.91 per kwh which improved from the pick-up level of 33 per cent in July that priced the power at Rs 7.80 per kwh.

DPC is setting up a 2,184 mw LNG-based combined cycle power plant at Dabhol in Maharashtra. The phase-I project of 740 mw is currently operational on imported naphtha while the entire plant would be fully operational on LNG in January, 2002.

The average tariff rate between the month of May, 1999 (since the phase-I plant started operating) and October, 2000, is around Rs 4.94 per kwh, while the average rate mentioned in the power purchase agreement is around Rs 4.02 per kwh, based on 90 per cent despatch of power from the plant to MSEB.

As per the agreement, MSEB is the sole buyer of power from DPC at variable rates depending on factors like pick-up level, fuel cost, import duty on fuel and rupee-dollar exchange rate.

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