OP Jindal Industrial Park located at Punjipathra, Raigarh,Central India, is in a state jeopardy as the power supply of the industries will be cut off from 1st of June 2018. An official notice from Jindal Steel and Power Limited has been issued intimating its customers after which anxiety among the Steel Producers of Punjipathra Industry Park has increased.
In Raigarh’s punjipatra industrial park about 25-30 Induction furnaces are based which produced approximately of 70,000-80,000 MT of Ingot/Billet per month.
As per Industry participants if there is ground level power cut in days to come, prices once to boost further in neighboring states including local market as the industries in Raigarh are the merchant suppliers of Ingot/Billet to across North-east & Central India. As per SteelMint assessment, post the power cut notice, local Ingot/Billet prices in Raigarh already shoot up by INR 2,000-2,500/MT (USD 30-37) as compared to surrounding markets by INR 1,000-1,500/MT (USD 15-22).
The notice says that “Jindal Steel and Power Limited has been procuring power, as an interim measure, from Dongamahua-CPP for onward supply to consumers of OP Jindal Industrial Park, Punjipathra. The generation at DCPP has been irregular in the recent past, owing to the irregular availability of coal offered by Coal India Ltd through e-auction.
Dongamahua-CPP has now been granted a coal linkage in the non-regulated sector quota, and the coal procured by them under the linkage route cannot be used for the supply of power to the regulated business of Jindal Steel and Power Limited as per prevailing rules. Dongamahua-CPP will shortly commence drawing coal under this linkage to its full extent, and thereafter no power from Dongamahua-CPP can be supplied to the distribution license business of JSPL. Thereafter, JSPL would not have any source from which to procure power”.
This notice has brought panic among the industry owners as their investment and future operation is in danger. Raigarh Ispat Udyog Sangh has also written a letter requesting Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission to continue the power supply.
In February 2018, Jindal Steel and Power Limited had filed a petition before Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission, seeking permission to procure power on a long-term basis through a competitive bidding process following the guidelines of the Government of India, under section 63 of the Electricity Act, 2003.
It has also requested that pending the completion of the bidding process for long-term procurement and adoption of tariff by the Commission, JSPL may be permitted to procure power on a short-term basis through a competitive bidding process, so as to ensure that there is no disruption in power supply.
The said petition was listed for admission before the Commission April 7, 2018, and orders on the petition were reserved. However, the Commission has not passed any orders on the petition till date.
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