Delhi can pay fixed cost & shut down Badarpur plant: Goyal

The Delhi govt has however not approached the Union Power Ministry on sorting out issues related to PPA for shutting down the plant

Delhi government can shut down NTPC's Badarpur power plant as per the power purchase agreement (PPA) after paying fixed cost to the company for recovering its investments, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.

The minister said however that the Delhi government has not approached the Union Power Ministry or him on sorting out issues related to PPA for shutting down the Badarpur power plant, which is one of the measures contemplated to curb the rising pollution in the national capital.

"They have to sort out (issues in) their PPA. They have to honour it...Within the framework of PPAs whatever is possible can be done," Goyal said in an interaction with press.

"If they have decided to shut it down they can commit to pay that fixed charges and shut it. We have no problem," he added.

According to the information provided on NTPC's portal, Delhi is the sole beneficiary state of the plant, having installed capacity of 720 MW.

Goyal said the companies' investment in a power plant is based on the commitments made in the PPAs (by users like utilities or state governments) and they have to recover their investments.

An expert said that besides the payment of fixed cost for shutting down the Badarpur plant, Delhi government would have to sort out other issues like the plan of islanding of the capital region.

Under the scheme which is to be completed, the national capital's power system will be isolated and not affected by a failure in the regional grid. Mumbai has such system in place.

On acceptability of UDAY scheme, meant for revival of debt stressed power distribution companies, Goyal said that most of the states will come on board by March next year.

As many as nine states have already communicated their willingness to join the scheme including Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.

Exuding confidence about revival of Indian economy, Goyal said that India will be bright spot in 2016 when most of the major economies facing serious challenges.

On seeking higher budgetary support to give push to clean energy sources, the minister said: "I don't need budgetary support for renewable energy programme."

Government has set an ambitious target of having 175 GW of power generation capacity from renewable energy sources including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy.

Recently, a Parliamentary panel asked the government to increase the budget allocations for promoting renewable energy in the country.