Mr. Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Power opened a new chapter to enhance transparency in power transmission sector of the country by launching the ‘TARANG’ Mobile App, ‘e-Trans’ & ‘DEEP’ e-bidding web portals.
These were developed by Rural Electrification Corporation Transmission Projects Company Limited (RECTPCL), a subsidiary of REC Ltd.
With the perspective of good governance, and keeping in line with the “Digital India” initiative of Government of India, ‘TARANG’ (Transmission App for Real Time Monitoring & Growth) Mobile App & Web Portal has been developed by RECTPCL, under the guidance of Ministry of Power. Introduction of the electronic platform shall enhance ease, accountability & transparency and would boost confidence of investors in power transmission sector. Better price discovery shall ultimately benefit the power consumers in India.
TARANG is a powerful monitoring tool that tracks upcoming transmission projects and monitor the progress of Inter-State & Intra-State transmission systems in the country, being developed through Regulated tariff mechanism as well as Tariff Based Competitive Bidding(TBCB) route.
TARANG shall also include status of stalled/delayed transmission systems in country which would enable the stakeholders viz. Ministry of Power, State Governments, all private sector transmission developers and PSUs like Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd., for expeditious completion of such projects.
Apart from Tarang, Minister unveiled the ‘e-Trans’ web platform for e-bidding and e-reverse auction for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) in transmission projects. Till date transmission sector providers have been participating in transmission bids through manual mode. With e-Trans, the interface will be electronic. On the lines of coal sector, reverse auction is being introduced in transmission sector to facilitate better price discovery in transmission projects.
The Minister also launched the ‘DEEP (Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price) e-Bidding’ portal for medium term (1-5 years) purchase of power, on the occasion. The Portal will provide a common e-bidding platform with e-reverse auction facility to facilitate nation-wide power procurement through a wider network so as to bring uniformity and transparency in the process of power procurement.
With the introduction of e-Bidding and e-reverse auction process for medium term (1-5 years), the time span of the complete bidding process and the cost of procurement of power is expected to be reduced substantially, thereby significantly benefiting the ultimate consumers.
The system of e-reverse auction is being introduced with concept of L-1 matching. The provision of multiple progressive bidding based on the fuel choice has also been incorporated in the system.
To give a perspective of the progress made so far, it may be noted that e-bidding portal was launched on 12.04.2016 for procurement of short term power by DISCOMs. Thereafter 8 States viz., Uttarakhand, Kerala, Jharkhand, Bihar, Punjab, Assam, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, along with other private DISCOMS including Torrent Power, NPCL etc., have conducted e-bidding and around 18000 MW has been requisitioned through the DEEP portal.