Private sector investments need to increase for cross-border power trading: Power secy

Private sector investment should increase to create a more robust integrated cross-border power trading market, said Power Secretary S C Garg on Thursday.

"India has multiple resources for power generation like hydro, solar, coal, etc., which need to be exploited. India has the scope of exporting 75,000 MW of hydro-generated power to resource-deficient neighbouring countries," said Garg while speaking at third edition of the 'CII South Asia Power Summit'.

He also said there is interdependence among the countries in South Asia and it makes commercial sense to cooperate in areas such as jointly exploring resources (particularly Sri Lanka and Myanmar), integrated transmission network and free participation of entities or producers from other countries such as Bhutan and Bangladesh.

He urged the private sector to invest and jointly cooperate in the 2.5 lakh megawatt potential that exists in the South Asian region and to make mantra of 'One World, One Sun One Grid' a reality.

Re-emphasising on India's unique geographical location in the South Asian region, S N Barde, chief executive officer of GMR Energy, said India is a leading power-generating country among the BBIN (Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal) nations.

Barde welcomed the announcement of the new cross-border trade regulations released by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) and that it is a big milestone in providing optimisation of tariffs which will invariantly benefit all member nations.

However, he said the issues of cross-border transmission infrastructure in the South Asian region still need to be addressed.

Bangladesh Additional Power Secretary Rahmat Ullah Mohd Dastagir said, "As per the World Bank, Bangladesh is the third-fastest growing in economy South East Asia with a GDP growth rate of 8.1 per cent. The Government of Bangladesh is working towards structural and policy changes to make 100 per cent electricity access by 2022."