The Coal Ministry's Standing Linkage Committee (Long-Term) has recommended granting long-term coal linkage for Torrent Power's proposed relocated power plant of 800 MW capacity in Gujarat by treating it as a special brownfield project under the revised SHAKTI Policy. According to reports from Business Standard, the committee accepted the Ministry of Power's contention that the proposal merited special consideration because Torrent's existing 362-MW Sabarmati Thermal Power Plant in Ahmedabad is being relocated after the Gujarat government decided to utilise its ash pond land for the development of an international-level sports facility.
The Ministry of Power argued that the relocation was not driven by a commercial decision by the company but by a public infrastructure requirement. As reported by Business Standard, the Power Ministry relied on Paragraph 5.2 of the Tariff Policy, 2016, which states that a private power producer is permitted a one-time expansion of up to 100 per cent of its existing generating capacity, with the tariff determined by the regulator rather than through fresh competitive bidding. The committee recommended earmarking coal linkage for 724 MW capacity to the Gujarat government for utilisation by Torrent's proposed 800-MW replacement plant.
Apart from the Torrent proposal, the committee approved long-term coal linkage for Madhya Pradesh's proposed 660-MW ultra-supercritical unit at the Satpura Thermal Power Station, a brownfield replacement project that will come up after four ageing generating units are decommissioned. According to Business Standard, it also granted Rajasthan a one-year extension to utilise coal linkage already earmarked for 3,299 MW of coal-based capacity after delays in the state's tariff-based competitive bidding process.
The committee extended bridge coal linkages by one year for the three 800-MW units of the Patratu thermal power project of PVUNL and four thermal power stations operated by Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd, as delays in operationalising their captive coal blocks continue to necessitate interim coal supplies from Coal India. As reported by Business Standard, Coal India has been asked to identify the source of coal, the quantity to be supplied, the likely mode of dispatch, and the representative quality of coal for all approved projects.
