NGOs oppose CII's captive power plant

Non-government organisations and political parties opposed CII proposal to set up 100 mw captive power plant terming it anti-people. On Saturday, the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) held a hearing on the proposal.

They said that the calculations used to arrive at the unit cost of power generation was ambiguous.

Shantanu Dixit, an energy group expert of city based NGO Prayas said that operational issues involved in the captive power plant were vague. "CII and Maharashtra State Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) had refused to comment whether the electricity cost will rise with the rise in diesel prices," Dixit added.

Calling the proposal 'anti-consumer', social activist Vivek Velankar asked MERC to review the efforts taken by MSEDCL for controlling power theft. "As per the data made available by MSEDCL the collection against power theft is just Rs 50 lakh while the reports on loss due to power theft show the figure of Rs 1.50 crore. Thus, MERC should examine the anti-theft initiatives of MSEDCL," Velankar added.

Advocate Aruna Nafade asked MERC to look after the open access licensing proposal pending before the commission for last one and half year. "If the proposal gets approval it will nullify the problem of load shedding and there will be no need for captive power by paying high cost,'' she said.

Suresh Ranade, chairman of energy sub "�committee of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) asked regulatory commission to perform regular energy audit of the power generated through CPPs and also publish the units transferred from CPPs to state grid for public interest.

Representatives of political parties suggested the power saved due to captive generation by some companies could be directed to the rural areas of Pune district as the load shedding problem there was much more severe there than the city.

Member of Legislative Assembly Girish Bapat, while expressing his dissent, said "Industry should treat the matter as a corporate social responsibility initiative and should bear the additional cost out of their own profit.

If the industry can provide food, water, clothes as a donation in the situation of draught and other natural calamities, why not power," Bapat asked.

Pradeep Bhargava, former CII chairman, said CII and other companies involved do not intend to make any profit out of this project. For us this would be a major landmark in public"�private partnership.

"We are ready to pay extra charges for railway ticket under 'Tatkal' scheme and there are several other examples of similar kind, then why we are not ready to pay additional cost for our necessity," he asked.

"We have requested the government to reduce sales tax on diesel used for CPPs so as to bring down the power generation cost. If there is any other effective option we are ready to adopt the same," said Pramod Chowdhary, chairman CII.

Following these long drawn proceedings, the MERC Chairman Pramod Deo adjourned the discussion saying he would convene another meeting after 10 days.