Cabinet clears India, Japan pact on thermal power

The Cabinet on Wednesday gave ex-post facto approval to a pact between India and Japan for promoting sustainable and low-carbon thermal power development here.

"The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today granted ex-post facto approval to the MoU between India and Japan for promoting sustainable, stable and low-carbon thermal power development in India," a press release said.

The MoU will help India address issues and barriers in this area.

The proposal includes undertaking of activities such as update on the current and future policy trend in Indian power sector with wide coverage from R&M and Life Extension (LE) to new power development in India. It will also identify barriers that could be addressed through mutual collaboration by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Japan Coal Energy Centre (JCOAL).
 

Both nations will identify issues to be addressed regarding existing and upcoming facilities, and also operation and maintenance at either of them.

It provides for implementation of full-fledged diagnosis and/or other available and effective measures including Residual Life Assessment (RLA) and Conditional Assessment (CA) study with priorities on, but not limited to the target power stations under the Pre-Primary Study and the Cooperation.

The number of target power station(s)/unit(s) will be decided through mutual consultation by CEA and JCOAL.

It also provides for consideration of justifiability and feasibility of individual cases of power development based on thermal power generation technologies in terms of funding from the existing financial instruments and/or other available bilateral financial schemes.

Both nations will consider the possibilities for acquisition of carbon credits with bilateral/multilateral offset schemes that are anticipated to be materialised in the future upon consideration of financial side of individual cases of power development.

There will be an annual workshop in India and CCT Transfer Programme in Japan for bilateral knowledge and technology exchanges.

Both nations will hold an annual joint meeting attended by representatives of the Parties to discuss issues that have arisen or may arise in the course of implementation of the Project.