The interest in the distribution utility with an annual revenue of around Rs 3,200 crore comes against the backdrop of the govt.’s power sector reform measures
January 24, 2018
At least four companies—Tata Power, Adani Group, Torrent Power and Greenko Group—have shown interest in acquiring Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha (CESU Odisha), according to two people aware of the development. The electricity distribution privatization will help supply electricity to around 2 million consumers in the distribution circles of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Paradeep and Dhenkanal. PricewaterhouseCoopers is running the bid process in what is the first such sale in more than decade.
The interest in the distribution utility with annual revenue of around Rs 3,200 crore comes against the backdrop of the government’s power sector reform measures such as the proposed separation of the wire and electricity supply business. Also, there is a push for direct benefit transfer (DBT) for better targeting of subsidies and tariff slab rationalization.
The requests for proposals (RFPs) documents were on sale till December last year. This will now be followed by a due diligence process by the interested parties with the bids expected by March-end. Only one bidder had emerged during the earlier attempt to privatize CESU Odisha, leading to the process being scrapped.
