PM likely to meet chiefs of power firms on Jan 18

Amid a host of issues, including shortage of gas, coal and finances plaguing the sector, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet the heads of private power companies on January 18 to hear them to resolve hurdles.

CEOs of leading private firms including Tata Power, Reliance Power, Adani Power, Jindal Power among others, are expected to attend the meeting, sources in the Power Ministry said.

Shortage of gas and coal and other issues are likely to figure in the meeting. The impact of rising coal prices in the global markets on domestic power tariff is another major issue that is likely to come up for discussion.

In September last year, the Indonesian government had linked the price of coal exported with a benchmark based on international prices of coal. This move is likely to raise the cost of power generated from the coastal ultra mega power projects (UMPP) like Mundra in Gujarat and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Tata Power and Reliance Power, developers of Mundra and Krishnapatnam UMPPs respectively, had written to the Power Ministry seeking its approval to increase the power tariffs of those projects.

The ministry asked them to sort the matter with the respective buyers. The companies are hopeful that government intervention may provide them some relief.

Besides, the prower developers are also facing problems in raising funds as the banks are resisting disbursing finances without having coal linkages in place.

Some of the infrastructure projects including power sector are languishing due to this and may lead to miss the power generation target in the 12th plan also.

Sources said that the power companies are also likely to meet other Cabinet ministers - finance and coal - to place their problems infront of them and seek their solution.