Power Ministry asks thermal power plants to auction fly ash via transparent bidding

• If after bidding/ auction some quantity of fly ash remains un-utilised, then only, as one of the options, it could be considered to be given free-of-cost on first-come-first-served basis
• If ash remains unutilised even after the steps taken as above, thermal power plants (TPP) shall bear the cost of transportation of fly ash to eligible projects

New Delhi: The government has directed thermal power plants to auction fly ash through a transparent bidding process only and has also released an advisory in this regard. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Union Power Minister RK Singh on Wednesday during which he reviewed the status fly ash transportation to end users and fly ash utilisation. The meeting was attended by CEA Chairperson Prakash S Mhaske, NTPC CMD Gurdeep Singh and senior officials of the Ministry of Power.

"This will reduce the tariff of electricity and burden on the consumers," said an official statement released by the Ministry of Power.

Unsold fly ash to be given free of cost

According to the advisory, if after bidding/ auction some quantity of fly ash remains un-utilised, then only, as one of the options, it could be considered to be given free-of-cost on first-come-first-served basis, if the user agency is willing to bear the transportation cost. If ash remains unutilised even after the steps taken as above, thermal power plants (TPP) shall bear the cost of transportation of fly ash 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 will be required to approach the Ministry of Power for appropriate directions.

Fly ash transportation cost to be discovered via bidding only

The transportation cost, wherever required, will be as per the provisions of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notification and shall be discovered on a 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 50 km 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 finalisation of the fresh panel, the Power Ministry has said.

The fly ash will be offered to the end users on competing demand basis, ie, 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 utilisations shall make all out efforts to increase fly ash utilisation, the ministry has said.

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