Representational Image. (Source)
New Delhi: Union Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy R K Singh chaired a meeting on September 22, 2021, to review the status of fly ash transportation to the end-users and the fly ash utilisation.
The meeting was attended by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) Chairperson, NTPC CMD, and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) Chairman and senior officials of the Ministry of Power.
It was directed that power plants shall invariably auction the fly ash through a transparent bidding process.
The Ministry also issued an advisory during the meeting for this purpose. This will reduce the tariff of electricity and the burden on the consumers.
The advisory has the following salient points to be followed by power plants:
- The power plants shall provide the Fly Ash to end users through a transparent bidding process only.
- If after bidding/ auction some quantity of Fly Ash still remains un-utilized, then only, as one of the options, it could be considered to be given free of cost on a first come first served basis if the user agency is willing to bear transportation cost.
- If ash remains unutilised even after the steps taken as above, thermal power plant (TPP) shall bear the cost of transportation of Fly Ash to be provided free to eligible projects.
- The end-users shall be obligated to source the fly ash from the nearest TPPs to reduce the cost of fly ash transportation. If the nearest TPP refuses to do so, the end user project shall approach the Ministry of Power for appropriate directions.
- The transportation cost wherever required to be borne as per provisions of MOEF & CC notification by the power plants, shall be discovered on competitive bidding basis only. Thermal Power Plants shall prepare a panel of transportation agencies every year based on competitive bidding for transportation in slabs of 50km which may be used for the period. The TPPs shall call for bids well in advance so, that a transportation panel is in place as soon as the previous panel expires. There should not be gap between the expiry of one panel and the finalization of the fresh panel.
- The fly ash will be offered to the end users on the competing demand basis, i.e the end users who offer the highest price for fly ash and seek minimum support for transportation cost will be offered the same fly ash on priority.
- The power plants may offer fly ash subject to their technical restrictions such as all precautions required for Dyke Stability and Safety etc. The power plants having lower ash utilizations shall make all out efforts to increase the fly ash utilization. (Press Release)
