Piyush Goyal has made a statement that efficiency of state-run thermal power plants has gone down and coal transportation is a costly proposition as such land of these plants should be auctioned and power be purchased from market.

It may be mentioned that first four units of 110 MW each at Panipat thermal plant, stage 1 has already been scrapped as these had outlived their life and the government has proposed two super-critical units of 660 MW each in place of these units. The coal allocated to these units will be utilized for new units. Similarly, there is a proposal to setup a new super-critical unit of 660 MW at Yamunanagar.

The 4 units of stage 2 (2 x 210) and stage 3 (2 x 250) with total capacity of 920 MW, 2 units 300 MW each at Yamunanagar are in perfect condition. Two units of 600 MW each at Khedar at Hissar are running with full efficiency.

General Secretary of Association, Vikas Rathod said that state public sector units are not for earning profits but also to serve social reforms. The statement of power minister clearly indicates that he wants to privatise all state sector generation plants to allow monopoly of private generators.

VK Gupta, a spokesperson of All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said that the reported statement is bound to discourage the state to go for new thermal units in state sector and clear indication to privatise the power generation. Haryana is already purchasing 1424 MW power from Adani plant in Gujarat, thus forcing the backing down of state sector units.

HPGEA is of firm view that if the state government wants to bring down generation cost it must co-ordinate with power engineers and we can definitely save state sector units.