Piyush Goyal announces to set up 2000 MW solar power project in Punjab

Chandigarh, August 19, 2014: Conceding the request of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to allot a mega solar power plant in Punjab, the Minister of State for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal today announced to set up 2000 MW solar power plant to further augment the power generation in the state.  
This decision was taken by Goyal, who led a high-powered delegation here during a meeting with the Chief Minister accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister who holds the portfolio of power Sukhbir Singh Badal and Non-Conventional Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia after marathon discussions to bring sweeping reforms in the state’s power sector besides further enhancing its power generation capacity.  
While welcoming Union Power Minister, Badal highlighted the major achievements in power sector including 100% rural electrification way back in 1976 in the state.  He said that against the total demand of nearly 8600 MW, the installed capacity was 6200 MW resulting in shortfall of 2500 MW.  He said that three coal based power projects at Rajpura, Talwandi Sabo and Goindwal Sahib with a capacity of 2920 MW were started which improved the total capacity to 13600 MW in 2014 which was more than doubled what it was in 2007. The Chief Minister further said that nearly Rs.9200 crore was spent to strengthen the Transmission & Distribution System (T&D system) which had considerably reduced the T&D loses in Punjab and was now the lowest in the country.  Expressing gratitude to Goyal for accepting their majority of demands, the Chief Minister especially thanked him for providing coal linkage to GVK for six months and extending the time for R-APDRP project.  He also urged Goyal to direct Central Coalfield Ltd. (CCL) to immediately supply committed quantity of 3.5 coal rakes per day during the paddy season.  Likewise, he also impressed upon the Minister of Power to enhance the coal linkage for Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo power plants as their capacity had already been increased. He also demanded that Punjab should be given coal with low ash content as railway freight was 2.5 times the cost of coal which increased the cost of generation. The Chief Minister sought coverage of towns having population more than 15,000 under R-APDRP (Part-B) instead of towns with population of 30,000 under the scheme.
The Chief Minister also pleaded to restore the subsidy on the solar tubewells to 70% which had been recently slashed to 30% and asked the Central government to approve proposal for 10,000 tube-wells out of its recently announced program to install one lakh solar tubewells in the country.  He also flagged up the issue for installing 100MW solar panels on rooftops for which for which the state government would soon submit a detailed proposal.  He also sought Union Power Ministry’s intervention for the utilization of abundant land lying under the control of BBMB in Talwara Township and sought immediate action to transfer these large tracts of land to the state government so that they could be utilized optimally.  
Taking part in the deliberations, the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal assured Goyal that he would personally supervise the entire process to identify the requisite land for the installation of 2000 MW solar plant in the state.  He said that it was a great initiative on the part of the Union government to help the state in augmenting its power generation in solar energy which was not only eco-friendly but also cost effective.  He also thanked Goyal for acceding to the state government’s request to install smart meters over a period of next three years which would help the PSPCL to check the power pilferage and theft to great extent.  He also suggested the Ministry of Power to allow the state government to purchase nearly 523 acres of abundant land in Talwara Township under the jurisdiction of BBMB either at collector rates or on the basis of lease for 99 years.  
The Deputy Chief Minister also impressed on Goyal to develop solar parks covering at least 20 villages in each block across the state for providing assured irrigation facility to the farmers who were already grappling with acute problem of low ground level as the water table has been swiftly depleted over the past several years.  He also sought low interest rate loans on the solar tube-wells to the individual farmers instead of providing them of subsidy and also sought Goyal’s personal intervention to include Punjab in the Green Corridor Project.
On the issue of Coal linkage the Deputy Chief Minister requested the Ministry of Coal to formulate a uniform policy to allocate 100% coal from domestic sources to landlocked states and used imported coal in coastal states to bring down the power tariffs in landlocked areas. He apprised the Power Minister that since Punjab was land locked and situated at the farthest end (1500 km) domestic sources of coal as well as sea coast besides exorbitant Inland freight for transportation, which was more than Rs. 2500 per ton.
Dwelling on the promotion of solar energy, Non-Conventional Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia demanded the funding of 10,000 solar pumps in agriculture sector through soft loans by Asian Development Bank (ADB) to the tune of Rs. 340 crore (57%) of the total cost of Rs. 600 crore, out of which the balance Rs. 180 crore would be met with existing MNRE subsidy of 30% and Rs. 80 crore as farmer share. He also pleaded for funding of 200 MW solar power plants to energise 30,000 agriculture pumps with viability gap funding through soft loan of by ADB. This project was valued at Rs. 1400 crore.
Seeking personal intervention of Goyal for the promotion of biomass generation plants in Punjab, Majithia demanded exemption of excise & customs duty of technology, up-gradation/ renovation of existing plants, grant of financial assistance to the tune of 50% of balers, raker and baler carrier for collection and transportation of bio-mass and to make available working capital at rate of interest at par with the agriculture sector i.e. 4% against the existing being charged from the biomass generators at 12-13%. Majithia also mooted a proposal to subsidise the LED lighting system to make it far more popular besides also supporting the Grid Interactive Rooftops Solar projects on houses either by giving soft loans or subsidy.
Winding up the discussions, the Union Power Minister highly complimented the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister for bringing T&D losses at lowest in the country and said he would impress other states to replicate Punjab’s experience in this regard because to control T&D losses was far more a cogent factor than merely generating power. He assured Badal that out of the 2000 MW Solar Power generated in the state, 1000 MW would be purchased by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). He also promised that Mega Solar Project would soon become a reality in Punjab which would act as a catalyst to herald era of solar energy but at the same time he asked the state government to immediately identify the requisite land for this purpose. He also asked both the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) to jointly fund the project of installing smart meters in the state at a cost of Rs. 400 crore and the remaining Rs. 100 crore would be borne by state government. He also asked the state government to put up a comprehensive proposal to the Ministry for the usage of imported coal with low ash content instead of indigenous coal, which could also proved to be cost effective in view of its high quality. Goyal also appreciated the Deputy Chief Minister’s initiative to announce the waiver of excise and other charges on the generation of solar energy in order to promote it in a big way and thus would also motivate the other states in the country to follow the suit.        
 Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal, Principal Secretary to CM SK Sandhu, Secretary Power Anirudh Tiwari, Special Principal Secretary to CM Gaggandip Singh Brar, CMD PSPCL KD Chaudhary, CMD PSTCL Anurag Aggarwal.
The delegation accompanied with Goyal included GM REC Rakesh Sareen, Director Projects Dinesh Jha IAS, Chairman BBMB AB Aggarwal, Joint Secretary Power Jyoti Arora, Joint Secretary Coal AK Bhalla, CMD PFC MK Goel and Director (Mkt.) CIL BK Saxena.