National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) will deliberate on mechanism for the purchase of spot coal from Afghanistan/other sources for longer period of 3 to 6 months instead of current monthly basis.
In a public hearing scheduled for today (Monday), NEPRA will deliberate on the guidelines for coal fired power plants for procurement of spot coal from Afghan/other sources. According the NEPRA revised guidelines for procurement of coal on spot basis from Afghanistan/other source, the regulator has noted that coal power plants shall ensure that coal procurements from Afghanistan are conducted fairly and transparently, while the procurement process should be efficient and economical and must strive to ensure value for money for the consumers. Some of the guidelines are: imported coal based IPPs shall first ensure whether local coal such as Thar coal is available which can be used keeping in view plants’ technical requirement; IPPs shall estimate total quantity/quality of coal to be procured in the next six months; if no local coal is available which meets the desired specs, then IPPs shall progress with spot purchases as per this mechanism; bidder should meet minimum eligibility criteria which shall among other include submission of bid bond which shall be worked out as—Quoted Price x Quoted Quantity x 5 percent; paid up capital of the bidder shall be at least Rs100 million and shall be considered for minimum eligibility criteria.
