BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State continues to reel under power crisis and none of the greenfield power projects for which MoUs were signed in 2006 is ready for commission, plans are afoot to encourage captive power plants (CPPs) to go for capacity addition and change their status to independent power projects (IPPs). While a new power project has a long gestation period, capacity addition to an existing plant is much faster. New projects are getting delayed because of several factors, the toughest being acquiring private land. Of the 29 MoUs the State Government signed for thermal power projects, 21 projects were scheduled to be executed during the 11th plan period. However, only one project has been commissioned so far. The Sterlite Energy of Vedanta Resources which had signed to set up 2400 (4X600) MW power project at Jharsuguda has commissioned three units and the fourth one is ready for commercial generation. Ind Bharat Energy (Utkal) Limited which is setting up a 700 (2X350) MW coal-based power project at Sahajbahal in Jharsuguda district is ready to commission the first unit this month while the second unit is scheduled to be synchronised to the State grid in March next year. Sources are, however, skeptical about the Government proposal as CPPs and IPPs are governed by separate policies. While a CPP provides its surplus power to the Government at full cost, as per the new policy decision IPPs will have to supply 25 per cent free power to the State. The issue was discussed at a meeting here recently chaired by Chief Secretary BK Patnaik. A few companies, including Nava Bharat Ventures Limited, have shown interest to convert their CPPs into IPPs. The ferro alloys plant of Nava Bharat at Khargprasad in Dhenkanal district has a 64 MW captive power plant. The company has given a proposal to the Government to convert the CPP to IPP and go for capacity addition.
Comments
0 comment