Reliance demands progressive power policy

Rubbishing the power policy of the state government, Reliance Industries Ltd, which has highest investments in the state, wants to sell power directly to end users, which the present policy does not permit.

V V Suryarau, president, group manufacturing services of Reliance Industries Ltd, has suggested that the Government of Gujarat must allow private power producers to sell power directly to users.

"We have about 900 MW power generation capacity in Gujarat at our captive power plants (CCP) located at Jamnagar, Hajira, Dahej, Vadodara and Dahej. We can easily sell surplus power generation of about 100 MW to the needy party," said Suryarau.

Goa and Maharashtra are the states with the most progressive power policy that allows the private producers to sell power to the needy parties, added Suryarau.

At present, Reliance is selling power to the industrial units in Goa and Maharashtra without the intervention of state electricity board. According to policy of state government, no private party can sell electricity directly to the end user that leaves only state electricity as a buyer.

Meanwhile, responding to a question from audience, member technical of Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) P H Rana stated: "We are ready to buy power from Reliance if they quote us the right price. At present, we are buying Power Trading Corporation (PTC) who is offering us power at affordable rate."

The average demand of power in state is about 9000 MW and state is facing sever power deficiency at present as GEB is not capable of generating the same. GEB has announced extra power holiday for non-continuous processing units twice in last two months.

"We are not very keen to sell power to GEB where we have to negotiate. We want an open power sector in the state. The uninterrupted power supply in the state will allow the manufacturers to utilise the full production capacity. The state must offer an uninterrupted power supply if they want to attract investors in state. Moreover, we will be able to save losses made in the transmission as we will sell power the nearest located party," said Suryrau.

Mentioning the higher tariffs for the power generated by private party, Suryrau asked: "Why should the state government bother if the buyer wants to pay higher tariff for the uninterrupted power?"