In India Several parts of the country are grappling with power outages on account of shortages of fossil fuel.
Raising power crisis in India made Modi led BJP Government invoke Section 11 of the Electricity Act, asking all imported coal-based projects to generate electricity,
Read Section 11. (Directions to generating companies) clause (1) Appropriate Government may specify that a generating company shall, in extraordinary circumstances operate and maintain any generating station in accordance with the directions of that Government.
This order will bring on stream at least 7 GW power plants of Essar Power, Coastal Energen in states such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and it will also apply to the plants under the National Company Law Tribunal.
The order will also help restart non-operational units of Adani Power and Tata Power, says the report.
India has 17,600-MW imported coal plants, however, only 10,000 MW are operating due to the lack of compensation for the high imported coal prices, the report said.
These plants will supply power to power purchase agreement holders. Any surplus power shall be sold in the power exchange.
According to Electicity act 2003 With this order, any state including Gujarat and Rajasthan can buy power from exchanges while the commercial issues can be resolved later. in respective State Regulating Commission .
The tariffs of the projects operating on high-cost imported coal will be worked out by a committee constituted by the ministry of power, the Central Electricity Authority, and the Central / State Electricity Regulatory Commission.
“Total dues of state gencos are to the tune of ₹ 7,918 crore. This has led to less dispatch of coal to states over the past many months. Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal could not build up stocks due to pending dues,” according to a recent note to the cabinet secretary on the power supply situation.
Moreover, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Delhi, it said, have not made advance arrangements with their gas-based plants, which has affected about 4,000 mw capacity and has put more pressure on domestic coal.
As per the Central Electricity Authority’s (CEA) report the power plants having linkage with Coal India Ltd and The Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) have coal stock of nine days as on April 28.
