Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has drawn the attention of Union Minister of State for Coal and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal towards the problems faced by Madhya Pradesh in coal and renewable energy sectors and urged him to solve them.
Chouhan, in a letter to the Central Minister, said that coal to the Sanjay Gandhi thermal power station (SGTPS), Birsinghpur, supplied by SECl is not recommended for thermal power stations and has increased the cost of generation from this station by a level of 12.6 per cent in 2008-09 to 61 per cent in the year 2013-14. This has resulted in additional burden of about Rs 966 crore on the MPPGCl in financial year 2013-14 and still SECl has enhanced supply of such coal to this power station from this station by about Rs 1.21 per unit.
The additional burden is ultimately being passed on to power consumers. This situation can be avoided if supply of these grades of coal to SGTPS is restricted by SECl to a reasonable level of 20 per cent.
The Chief Minister wrote that prior to fuel supply agreement (FSA) regime, coal sampling was carried out at both loading as well as unloading ends. However, FSA provides for sampling of coal at the loading ends only. SECl/WCl charge MPPGCl for the declared grade coal, whereas, checking at unloading end suggests slippages in coal grades. Since coal rates are grade-based, slippages in grades put additional financial burden on the purchaser.
Considering importance of coal sampling of coal companies as well as utilities, in State Government's view, the provisions regarding coal sampling under FSA need to be amended to ensure sampling of coal at both loading and unloading ends.
In another letter, the Chief Minister drew the attention of Piyush Goyal towards the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) created for funding of research and innovative projects involving clean energy technologies.
Permissible projects under NCEF include power evacuation infrastructure projects for renewable energy. For funding under the NCEF, such projects need to be sponsored by the Ministry.
The Chief Minister said that due to the initiatives taken by the Madhya Pradesh Government to promote renewable energy based power projects, about 4,000 MW grid connected renewable power projects are under development in Madhya Pradesh. In order to evacuate power generated by these projects from grid, after delayed study, a project on transmission strengthening and upgradation has been prepared by MP Power Transmission Company limited. The cost for the project has been estimated as Rs 2,100 crore.
TheSstate Government forwarded the proposal to the Ministry on August 27, 2013 for obtaining approval of IMG for the project through NCEF, but it has been pending for more than nine months.
The Chief Minister urged the Union Minister to look into the issue and expedite approval from IMG. This would go a long way in the development of renewable energy-based projects in the State.