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Private producers to sell power to consumers

— PHOTO: R. V. MOORTHY

ENABLING PROVISION: Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde (right) with Chairman and Managing Director of PTC India, T. N. Thakur, at a conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Tuesday announced that his Ministry had decided to amend Sec. 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003, to allow independent power producers to sell power to consumers of their choice through the open access system doing away with States’ intervention.

Speaking at a conference on Open Access organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India here, Mr. Shinde said this had been possible after a consensus to this effect emerged among States.

The Ministry on Monday took a decision to amend the Electricity Act, 2003, he added. According to him, long-term open access has already been granted to about 14,000 MW of generation capacity and the process for a similar capacity is nearing completion.

On the long-term open access front, he said Power Grid Corporation had received 178 applications from various customers seeking open access amounting to about 1,42,000 MW in the next 3-4 years.

Most generation projects were proposed in resource rich eastern and northeastern regions, he said.

State governments, State electricity regulatory commissions and State load despatch centres had to play an active role to facilitate implementation of open access in intra-state transmission and distribution. There was an urgent need for empowerment of State load despatch centres and expedite the implementation of intra-State availability based tariff, Mr. Shinde said.

Responding to the announcement by the Power Minister, Independent Power Producers Association Director General Harry Dhaul said it was a welcome development. However, he said parallel and concurrent amendments in Sec. 37 and 108 should also be looked upon and the requisite amendments should be done once and for all.

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