PANJIM: As the state reeled under the high temperatures of a simmering summer, corporate’s in the state were left stunned when the supplier of electricity, Reliance Infra Ltd informed its clients that it would stop supplying power after August 2014.
There were over 76 companies which received power from Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and the problem between the parties commenced on April 18, when RSPCL sent a mail out to its clients in the Verna Industrial estate stating that there would be a disruption in the supply of electricity starting at midnight which could extend up to four weeks. This disruption the company claimed was due to a problem in a turbine. Goa has an allocation of approximately 460 MW from NTPC stations, 28 MW from NPCIL. In 2012-13, Goa required approximately 3550 MUs of power. Based on a targeted GSDP growth rate of 12%, the requirement of power is expected to grow by around 5% year-on-year.
This lead to the CII along with other government and trade bodies interacting with the parties concerned to help solve the issue. After several discussions spread over several days an agreement was signed between the state government and the Goa based power consumers. In October, R-Infra agreed to grant existing power consumers a non exclusive right to use R-Infra Infrastructure for the period up to March 31, 2015 subject to the consumer paying R-Infra a user charge @Rs 2 per /kWh of the electricity received by it from GoG through the R-Infra Infrastructure. R-Infra would be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the R-Infra infrastructure and shall attend and resolve any breakdown within a reasonable period of time.
According to the final MoU signed between Reliance Infra and the state government the consumer would take the power from Government of Goa (GoG) until GoG develops its distribution network touching the premises of the consumers company. The parties also agreed that the term of the MoU would be automatically extended for subsequent terms of six months each till GoG developed its distribution network touching the premises of the company or if the arrangement is terminated.
This agreement helped resolve some of the pressing issues that had emerged following the decision by Reliance to discontinue its operations in the state.
