Patiala: The State Limited (PSPCL) has initiated the process to revive the Jalkheri biomass-based power plant with 1x10MW capacity on renovate, operate and transfer (ROT) basis. The power plant has been lying idle for 11 years now. The technical bids for the project were opened on November 22, which saw three companies putting up their offer. Chairman cum managing director of the PSPCL, Baldev Singh Sran, said that once the renovation work is allotted to the lowest bidder, the plant would become operational in about 27 months from the date of signing the lease agreement, which is likely to take 45 days from the issue of letter of award (LOA). He said that an operational plant at Jalkheri would consume about 80,000 metric tonnes of paddy straw per annum for producing electricity and thus help in mitigating the effects of in the region. He also said that the project would help in meeting the purchase obligations (RPO) requirements of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and would generate 56.94 million units per annum considering a plant load factory of 65%. The biomass-based power plant of 1x10MW capacity was commissioned in June 1992 and was constructed by erstwhile PSEB at village Jalkheri in district Fatehgarh Sahib. The plant remained operational till July 1995. In July 2001, it was leased out to Ltd. (JPPL), which recommissioned the plant in July 2002 and kept it operational till September 2007. In 2012, efforts were made to get the project re-started by giving a licence to the private developer to run the plant for a specific period on lease. But the proposal could not take off as no response was received.
An auction for a three MW biomass power plant in the Punjab State Power Corporation , which has been inactive for 22 November , has been launched by Jalkheri ( Jalkheri ). A previous attempt to restart the plant was made in 2012 via an offer to lease the site to a private developer. The proposal failed to receive any responses. The latest scheme, which was launched on 22 November , has already seen three companies submit bids. The project aims to help the region meet PSPCL 's renewable purchase obligations. The plant is scheduled to become operational by 2021 .