All India Power Engineers' Federation (AIPEF) has demanded that Central Electricity Authority (CEA) be strengthened by adding more members.
As of today, the CEA has a 'reduced' strength of just six full time members and no part time member, a statement by AIPEF said. The post of full time chairman is also vacant for which selection process is underway.
This is in contrast to section 70 of Electricity Act 2003 which allows up to 14 members (including its chairperson), of whom not more than eight shall be full time members, to be appointed by the Central Government.
It further said that the post of chairman is vacant since Jan 1, 2017 and there is scope to appoint one more full time member since eight is the limit.
The government has not appointed even one part time member, although there are so many disciplines directly related to electricity that deserve consideration for part time member of CEA, it said.
These are climate change, nuclear energy, solar and wind energy, energy conservation, grid management of non conventional and nuclear power, IT, telecom and computerisation of power sector and cyber security.
It said the policy and management issues relating to electricity are too vital to be left to market forces or privatisation.
V K Gupta, a spokesperson of AIPEF said the chairman of CEA is also an ex officio member of CERC.
He is also on the Board of Directors of Nuclear Power Corporation. The chairman is also on the selection committee for selecting chairman or member of State Electricity Regulatory Commissions.
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