July 7, 2009, New Delhi: The Union Power Ministry has decided to amend Section 11 of the Electricity Act 2003 to allow independent power producers to sell off power to consumers of their choice through an open access system. According to the Power Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, following this amendment, the current intervention of the states can be done away with.
Inaugurating the ASSOCHAM-organised Conference on Open Access in New Delhi on Tuesday, Mr Shinde said that a consensus to this effect has emerged from all states and a policy decision to amend Section 11 has been taken only yesterday.
Amendment to the existing Section 11 of the Electricity Act 2003 would enable independent power producers to choose their customers without any regulatory intervention from the states, pointed out Mr Shinde.
According to him, “long-term open access has already been granted to about 14,000 MW of generation capacity and the process is nearing completion for a similar capacity. The balance applications are under various stages of evaluation.”
“On the long-term open access front, I would like to mention that till date, Powergrid has received 178 applications from various customers seeking open access amounting to about 1,42,000 MW in the next three to four years. Most of the generation projects are proposed in the resource-rich Eastern and North-Eastern region,” said the Power Minister.
“In order to facilitate implementation of open access in intra-state transmission and distribution, the state government’s State Electricity Regulatory Commissions and State Load Despatch Centres have to play an active role. There is an urgent need to empower the State Load Despatch Centres and to expedite the implementation of intra-state availability based tariff,” said, Mr Shinde.
The Power Minister said that considering the high capacity addition in resource-rich regions like Eastern and North-Eastern regions, the transfer of power over long distances to power deficit regions like the Northern, Western and Southern regions, the optimal utilisation of right of way and the development of high-capacity integrated transmission corridors are assuming greater significance.
“For this purpose, High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) links and Ultra High Voltage transmission corridors with pooling stations at suitable locations in Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are envisaged to ensure the development of an efficient, coordinated and economical inter-state transmission system,” said, Mr Shinde.
Sajjan Jindal, ASSOCHAM President, raised a query saying that not much has been given by the Finance Minister for the power sector in Budget proposals 2009-10. To this, Mr Shinde expressed satisfaction over what has been proposed for the sector in the budget. However, he added that whatever recommendations of the Power Ministry to the Finance Ministry have been left unattended would be re-discussed and re-debated with Finance Ministry officials in the remaining period of the fiscal so that a fair deal is assured to the power sector.
Among the attndees at the Conference were Dr Pramod Deo, Chief Executive of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), TN Thakur, Chairman of ASSOCHAM Committee on Power and CMD of Power Trading Corporation of India (PTC), Mahendra Kumar, CEO, Reliance Energy Trading, Sajjan Jindal, ASSOCHAM President and DS Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM.
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