The target of adding 84,000 MW of power during the XII Plan will not be impacted by the de-allocation of coal blocks that have been named in the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Union Power Minister, Veerappa Moily said, “about 60 per cent of power produced in India is thermal, and, during the 11 Plan period, 54,000 MW of power was added. There will be no impact of the CAG report on coal availability as the coal linkages have already been made. De-allocation will have a bearing on the future power production targets in the 13 Plan”.
“India has the fourth largest coal resource in the world, 4 billion tonnes, and we will use only 650 million tonnes in the 13 plan,” he said.
Talking about coal block allocation, the minister said windfall gains would go to benefit the consumer and not the power-generating companies, “as they have to operate in a tariff based regime.”
The government was also planning to integrate the southern grid with the national grid by 2014, Mr. Moily said. “Once the southern grid is connected, we will have one frequency across India instead of two,” he added
The minister said India’s GDP growth would soon return to 9 per cent as the power sector was set to grow by 8 per cent.
Debt revamp plan for SEBs
Mr. Moily said the government had prepared a debt restructuring plan for the state electricity distribution companies which cumulatively had a Rs. 2 lakh crore loss. “The plan will be approved in 2-3 weeks time by the cabinet and involves modifying the debt repayment schedule. It is not a bail-out,” he said, adding, “the plan is linked to 10 performance parameters. It is sustainable and will put them in sound financial health through a pragmatic approach so that they do not get into a debt trap again in the foreseeable future.”
