November 21, 2008
Power generation from captive power plants in India
Mr Sushi Kumar Shinde union power minister said that according to the information available with the Central Electricity Authority, the generation capacity of captive power plants of capacity more than 1 MW was 21468 MW as on March 31st 2006 and 22335 MW as on March 31st 2007.
Mr Shinde said that during the year 2005-06, 5364.74 million units of electricity have been exported by these captive power plants to the utilities. No sanction is required under the provisions of the Electricity Act 2003 for setting up captive power plants. He added that centre has taken various legislative, policy and administrative measures to facilitate captive generation and utilization of surplus capacity.
He said that National Electricity Policy, notified in February 2005, emphasizes the need for bringing surplus capacity available with a large number of captive and standby generating stations in India to the grid continuously or during certain time periods. Tariff Policy, notified in January, 2006, recognizes that captive generation is an important means to make competitive power available and urges the Electricity Regulatory Commissions to create an enabling environment that encourages captive plants to be connected to the grid.
Mr Shinde further added that the conference of chief ministers on power sector held in May 2007, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister, has resolved to facilitate captive power plants to provide the spare generating capacity to the grid and strives to do away with restrictive levies, duties and regulations in a time bound manner.
Under the Electricity Act 2003, captive power plants, including group captive, have been freely permitted. The Act provides that any person may construct, maintain or operate a captive generating plant and dedicated transmission lines. Under the provisions of the Act, every person, who has constructed a captive generating plant and maintains and operates such plant, shall have the right to open access for the purposes of carrying electricity from his captive generating plant to the destination of his use subject to the availability of transmission capacity.
