Friday 3 January 2014

CCEA approves amendments to Mega Power Policy

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the proposal to amend the policy on mega power projects. Meanwhile, power generating firms can take benefit from this policy only after fulfilling certain mandatory conditions as the developer must tie up at least 65 percent of the installed capacity through competitive bidding and remaining 35 percent of the installed capacity should be through the regulated tariff. Meanwhile, policy guidelines were also modified in 1998, 2002 and 2006 to encourage power development in the North Eastern region and Jammu & Kashmir.

According to the amended Mega Power Policy, in order to avail the benefits of duty-free imports of equipments for thermal power projects of capacity of 1,000 MW and above, and hydro power projects of 500 MW and above, provisional mega power project status certificate along with a fixed deposit receipt from any scheduled bank must be submitted as a security for a term of 60 months, which was earlier for 36 months. Mega Power Policy allows mega power projects to tie up electricity sales to distribution utilities through long-term power purchase agreements.

Further, to encourage power development in Jammu & Kashmir, CCEA approved construction of a 220 kv transmission system from Alusteng in the Srinagar valley to Leh and inter- connection system for various sub- stations in J&K at a cost of Rs 1,788.41 crore. The project will be implemented through Power Grid Corp within 42 months from the date of release of the first installment of funds and the project cost will be borne by the central government and the J&K Government in the ratio of 95:5. After commissioning of the transmission system, Operation & Maintenance (O&M) and other related activities will be carry out by J&K Government at their own cost.

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