)
Coming under a veiled attack from independent power producers (IPPs) due to its demand for free power, the Odisha government has now decided to scrutinise policies of other states before taking any final call on its comprehensive thermal power policy on the pipeline.
The state energy department has urged bulk power purchaser Gridco and investment promotion agency- Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol) to study similar policies of other states.
The department which has been pitching for free power of 25 per cent from IPPs and 33 per cent from power plants based on coal washery rejects, has got a jolt with the chief minister’s office asking the department to reconsider the proposal after due scrutiny of policies framed by other states.
“Initially, we had demanded 25 per cent free power from IPPs. Later, we scaled it down to 13 per cent in line with the National Hydro Power Policy of the Centre. Of late, our department is of the view that IPPs who have been awarded coal blocks should give 15 per cent free power. But any decision will be taken after examining thermal power policies of other states,” said an energy department official.
Recently, the state government had asked the Planning Commission to take an early decision on the issue of free power.
“The decision for free power is emerging as a major concern for the state to facilitate land acquisition both for power projects as well as for coal mining as this has several adverse impacts on the state and its people. Realising the same, all the states present at the last meeting had requested the Planning Commission for expeditious decision on the matter. But unfortunately, no body has corresponded or consulted with the state government on the subject,” P K Jena, secretary (energy)-Odisha wrote to Sindhushree Khullar, secretary, Planning Commission in January this year.
At the last meeting of the Planning Commission held in August 2012 under the chairmanship of member B K Chaturvedi, The Energy & Resources Institute (Teri) -New Delhi was advised to conduct a study with due consultation from various states.
Two years have elapsed since the state had demanded free power in September 2010 but the Centre is yet to respond. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union minister for power for allocation of free power.
The Odisha government had pointed out that while states consuming the power and coal from the host state get benefited, the host state gets a nominal advantage of limited employment opportunity and also a very low royalty on coal. Both coal mining and power generation being in the manufacturing sector, hardly any ancillary industry gets developed around these activities. The above situation leads to an inequitable sharing of cost and benefits from coal mining and power generation.
