Propose to have cities buy power generated from waste: Goyal

Local bodies in India will compulsorily need to purchase any electricity generated from city waste as per a proposal under the new tariff policy, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.

"Besides, every bit of water waste water coming out of cities that can be reprocessed must be compulsorily used by electricity plants, so that the clean water is available for use by citizens," Goyal said here while giving away the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation's "Social Entrepreneur of Year-India 2015 award.

These changes, he said, were being proposed were to help India realise its commitments towards tackling climate change.

"Our policy is to encourage the processing of garbage and its conversion to wealth, in this case being electricity," the minister said.

He told reporters on the sidelines of the event that the new tariff policy would provide incentives to renewable energy projects as well as to those power generation plants that are efficiently using conventional sources of energy.

On resolving the issues of debt-ridden power distribution companies across the country, he said the ministry would soon approach the cabinet with a proposal that has been worked out. He added that the state-run distribution companies' losses are around Rs.60,000 crore.

Goyal also the government has set a target of replacing regular bulbs with LED bulbs in the next three years, which will save 20,000 MW power and 10,000 crore units of electricity per annum.