India's Power Ministry opposes procedure on transmission bidding

India's Ministry of Power has rejected the standard bidding procedure suggested by the Planning Commission (PC) for public-private partnership in transmission projects.

The MoP argued that the new procedure would create confusion among investors. It stated that approving the Model Transmission Agreement suggested by PC would lead to two sets of MTA documents being agreed upon, MoP has deemed it `inappropriate`.

Defending its decision on the issue, MoP has made a reference to the Standard Bidding Documents, including Standard Transmission Services Agreement, already issued by the ministry, under which six projects have already been bid out, with another five in the pipeline.

To further shore up its case, the ministry has maintained that the adoption of the PC version of MTA was not possible under Section 63 of the Electricity Act, 2003, since a new set of guidelines for the selection of transmission developer through a process based competitive bidding have already been issued, in 2006, and further that, any process for the foresaid selection for inter-state or intra-state transmission is required to be governed by these guidelines.