Stricter penalties in Electricity (Amendment) Act: Goyal

The Power Ministry is working on incorporating stricter penalties in the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Act and hopes to introduce it in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.
"We are looking at amendments to the Electricity Act of 2003, which we hope to present to Parliament during this session ... We are strengthening the penalty provisions, making it more stringent, more enforceable, increasing the penalty many-fold," Power Minister Piyush Goyal said here today.
He said that the current renewable purchase obligation (RPO) is also being re-looked.
"Earlier, we had certain set of targets till 2022, which we are bringing forward to 2019, we hope that 15 per cent of the renewable power purchase obligation can be enforced to 2015," he said.

RPO (renewable purchase obligation) means the requirement specified by the electricity regulatory commission for the obligated entity to purchase electricity from renewable energy sources.
The minister added that the government will also introduce a new element as RGO or renewable generation obligation.

"We will soon have companies which are setting up new projects required to also have 10 per cent renewable component, RGO to be introduced in the new act," Goyal said here at the launch of Indian Wind Energy Alliance (IWEA), a body for wind energy industry.
He said that the government will provide all the necessary support to the wind energy industry to achieve the target of 10,000 MW of wind power installations every year.

Sumant Sinha, Chairman of IWEA and Chairman and CEO of ReNew Power said that the wind power industry needs three things from the government -- ensuring sufficient demand, making it attractive for the states and removing installation bottlenecks.