The Union power ministry has sent four teams to review the progress of projects undertaken by independent power producers (IPPs) and captive power producers (CPPs). It has warned that it would not be possible in future to recommend proposals for coal linkages if the developers are not keen to achieve timely project completion.
Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told Business Standard on the sidelines of the Elecrama 2010 exhibition here: “The ministry is displeased with the slow progress made by these developers, despite the allocation of coal linkages. The ministry is keen to add more and more capacity and is quite liberal on the proposals of utilities, state or private, for coal linkages. However, (we) have information that in a large number of cases, there was no action at the ground and, thus, four separate teams have been sent north, south, east and west to see what IPPs and CPPs have done. The teams have been asked to prepare a report, based on which the ministry will take further action.” The projects under the review would be of 100 Mw and above.
Of the 78,700 Mw of capacity addition aimed to come in the current five-year plan, 15,043 Mw (19 per cent) is expected from the private sector and over 14,000 Mw from the CPPs. Shinde said the ministry had already asked central and state sector units to expedite project implementation, to achieve their capacity addition targets , by the end of the plan, in 2012.
Said an official who did not want to be named: “For example, the ministry has recommended coal linkage for Adani Power (2,640 Mq), JSW (600 Mw), Hindustan Zinc (160 Mw) and Ispat Energy (250 Mw) as IPPs and CPPs, as 11th plan projects. Thus, the teams will take stock of the preparedness and progress to achieve the completion of these projects by end of 2011-12.”
The minister said the teams would also examine the preparedness of IPPs and CPPs who have either got linkages or await these from the coal ministry for capacity addition in the 12th plan (2012-2017).