Bengal Hydel Policy To Be Discussed Today

West Bengal minister for power Mrinal Banerjee is meeting the chambers of commerce today to hear their views on the state's draft hydel power policy for both captive and non-captive generation.

The state government proposes to announce the final policy within a month. The government wants to throw open the hydel sector to the private sector or joint ventures in a big way to correct the current adverse thermal-hydel ratio of 97:3. The ideal ratio is 60:40, while the current national ratio is about 80:20.

The draft policy calls for regulatory control of all such private hydel power projects under the West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB).

 

The captive power projects will be limited to a capacity of up to 100 mw. However, for non-captive use, there will be no upper ceiling on project capacity.

Besides the requirement of the Board's clearance under Section 44 of the Electricity (Supply) Act, the private promoters require four other clearance from the Government of India. These are the following:

l Water utilisation clearance from the ministry of water resources if the project is an inter-state one;

l Rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced families will require clearance from not only the ministry of environment and forests but also the state government;

l Clearance from the ministry of environment and forests;

l Techno-economic clearance from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) if the project cost exceeds Rs 250 crore.

The draft legislation allows banking of energy for one year. Industrial units which develop hydel projects for captive use, will pay both wheeling and banking charges to the WBSEB. Concessional banking charge will be allowed for generation at peak hours.

After accounting for total consumption of electricity vis-