Govt crackdown soon on developers of delayed power projects: R K Singh

Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh on Thursday said the government will crackdown on developers of power projects, who miss the scheduled commercial date of operation or deadline to complete the project.

Addressing a CII conference, Singh said the electricity generation capacity addition is a big challenge, as people are sitting on several projects won under the bidding process.

Singh said that all these projects (power projects) are won under the bidding process and if they miss the SCOD (scheduled commercial date of operation or deadline to complete the project), then the developer will be banned from participating in project bidding for one year.

On the second such incident, the developer will be banned for five years, Singh said, adding that he is going to put this (rule) in (policy).

Power project developers are waiting for demand to grow but this will not happen, he said.

Singh also said that until battery energy storage becomes viable, India would have to add thermal power capacity to meet the demand.

At present the battery storage is Rs 10 per unit and energy rate is Rs 2.30, he explained.

He also said that he is pushing the case for another production-linked incentive scheme for grid-scale battery energy storage.