OERC allows more time to finalise small hydro policy

The Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) has allowed two more months to the Orissa government to finalise the guidelines of a new Small Hydro Power Policy for the state. Though the state government had sought three months time to finalise the guidelines citing that it required approval of different departments, the Commission has granted it two months.

The state government is in the process of revising the small hydro policy formulated in 2003 for the development of micro, mini and small electric projects up to the capacity of 25 Mw. The revised policy is proposed to have provisions to discourage the non-serious developers.

The state energy department has already prepared a draft small hydro policy and it has been sent to the water resources department for its comments.

The draft will be finalised in a joint meeting between officials of the energy and the water resources department. Once the draft is finalised, it will be sent for vetting of the law department before being placed before the state cabinet for approval, sources added.

In the revised policy, the amount of earnest money deposit (EMD) is proposed to be raised to Rs 5 lakhs from Rs 1 lakh prescribed in the earlier policy. Similarly, objective assessment will be done for short listing of the applicants. Assessment will be based on the technical expertise, experience in similar projects and financial networth among others.

Clear cut marking system will be introduced for assessment and the State Technical Committee (STC) headed by Engineer in Chief (electrical) will be entrusted with the job. Only those developers who will qualify in the technical bid will be eligible for the financial bidding.

The state government will allocate a project to a developer based on the assessment done by the STC. All these procedures will be followed before the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU).

It is also proposed to have a cancellation clause in the revised policy if the performance in the execution of the project is not satisfactory after the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU).