Recently, BSEB has released revised RFPs for Power Distribution Franchisee for 4 districts in Bihar – PESU, Muzaffarpur, Gaya and Bhagalpur.
pManifold’s DF Attractiveness Matrix, provides a quick comparative study on key decision parameters for Bihar 4 DFs with reference to other states DFs like for Nagpur, Agra, Gwalior and Jamshedpur. (click on the image to see enlarged view)
Some of the key excerpts are highlighted below:
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- The current DF scope is at District Level for all the areas. Adjoining areas (approx within 15-20 km) are also in scope of DF.
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- Geographical Area (Sq.Km.) is not mentioned in the RFP. However, a rough map (not to scale) is provided in RFP for indicative purpose.
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- Patna city and its adjoining areas comes under PESU, which has the highest consumer base compared to other areas/regions. Others are in the range of consumer base of 1.15 lakhs.
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- Connected Load (in KWs) is highest in PESU area, followed by Agra, Jamshedpur and Nagpur in that order. Connected Load for Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur is provided only at urban (i.e. town) level and not at district level.
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- Electricity Sales (LUs) is highest in PESU area, followed by Jamshedpur and Agra in that order
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- Collection Efficiency is second highest for PESU area, after Nagpur, while it is comparatively low for other towns (i.e Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur in that order) creating good opportunity there for improving commercial losses from effective DF operations.
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- Distribution losses is highest for Gaya, followed by Bhagalpur, Gwalior in that order. PESU area has least Distribution losses in Bihar regions.
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- AT&C losses is highest for Gaya, followed by Gwalior. In Bihar, AT&C losses from high to low rank from Gaya, Bhagalpur, PESU and Muzaffarpur.
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- Average Billing Rate (ABR) is among the highest for all the areas in Bihar (Avg. Rs. 5.58/kWh), which is highest when compared to others like Gwalior, Nagpur, etc. (This raises some concerns on the reliability of the shared ABR rates)
- BSEB has specified minimum Benchmark Input Price’s for bidders. The minimum benchmark price is for Gaya, followed by Bhagalpur, and highest for PESU area.
Clearly, across all regions, PESU area will likely attract more bidders because of its volume. The other 3 regions will attract small and new players to develop their base in fast emerging DF landscape in India. The baseline shared in RFP is still not very strong, and will attract many questions during the pre-bid meeting, that is planned for 16th Nov, 2012. Emerging Bihar calls again and this time for success of its first DF model, which will hopefully see increased participation.
Reference: BSEB RFP http://tenders.bih.nic.in/tenderdocs/TD-01-21-10-2012.pdf