The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is looking to procure electricity through open access in a bid to trim its rising power bills.
The PMC looks after facilities such as water treatment plants, water pumping stations, sewerage treatment plants, road infrastructure, hospitals, schools, gardens, auditoriums, office buildings etc. The monthly electricity bills for these facilities run into crores.
“The PMC has started to use nonconventional electricity to reduce its expenditure of electricity and promote renewable sources of energy like solar and through projects like waste to energy. It now plans to explore various cost saving measures pertaining to the purchase of electricity through Open Access Power Purchase,” said Srinivas Kandul, Chief Engineer in PMC.
The open access system allows a buyer to pick and choose power suppliers instead of being tied down to a single provider.
The civic body will be appointing a consultant to evaluate various available options for purchase of electricity via Open Access route. “The consultant will carry out a detailed study of the PMC’s energy requirements and find possible sources for Power Purchase through Open Access Route for the civic body,” Kandul said.
The consultant will analyse the existing infrastructure within 15 days, he added.
“Based on the trend for Power Procurement Strategy of PMC for the last three years the consultant will have to design a sustainable and an optimal least-cost power procurement strategy,” Kandul said.
