Power group to meet on May 28, discuss transmission issues

A panel appointed by Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will meet on May 28 to discuss electricity transmission bottlenecks in the sector.

An Advisory Group comprising members including Anil Ambani (Reliance Power), Cyrus Mistry (Tata Power) and Chanda Kochhar (ICICI Bank) will meet to deliberate on transmission issues impacting the power sector.

"Next meeting of the Advisory Group is on May 28 and the transmission sector would be the focus of that meeting," a source close to the development said. It comprises members from public sector power companies also.

The group which met last week discussed the status of hydel plants in the country.

"Some 4-5 points were raised by the various stakeholders in the meeting and we are working on them," the source said.

He added that the government will now works towards improving the  support infrastructure in the North-east (including roads and transmission) as there is no facility for carrying equipment and hence act as a major hurdle.

Hydro power project developers are also seeking longer tenure loans for the projects. At present, they get loans in 5-10 years.

"We need to incentivise the hydro sector. If there are longer tenure loans available, the developers will not be forced to increase electricity tariffs sharply," he said.

The hydro power developers have also sought increase in Return on Equity (ROE) for the hydel plants from the current 15.5 per cent for all generation plants (including thermal).

Higher RoE (return on Equity) will attract more investments into the sector. RoE is the amount of net profit returned as a percentage of shareholders' equity.