Coming as a relief to State’s power woes, the Centre on Tuesday announced to set up a 2,000 mega watt solar power plant in Punjab, following a request by the State Government.
The decision was taken by Union Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal, who led a high-powered delegation during a meeting with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, after marathon discussions to bring sweeping reforms in the state’s power sector.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who holds the portfolio of power, and Non-Conventional Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia.
Goyal assured Badal that out of the 2,000 MW solar power generated in the State, 1,000 MW would be purchased by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).
He also promised that Mega Solar Project would soon become a reality in Punjab which would act as a catalyst to herald era of solar energy, but at the same time he asked the State Government to immediately identify the requisite land for this purpose.
Goyal asked both the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) to jointly fund the project of installing smart meters in the state at a cost of Rs 400 crore and the remaining Rs 100 crore would be borne by State Government.
Union Minister of State also asked the State Government to put up a comprehensive proposal to the Ministry for the usage of imported coal with low ash content instead of indigenous coal, which could also proved to be cost effective in view of its high quality.
Taking part in the deliberations, Sukhbir Badal assured Goyal that he would personally supervise the entire process to identify the requisite land for the installation of 2,000-MW solar plant in the state.
He said that it was a great initiative on the part of the Union Government to help the State in augmenting its power generation in solar energy which was not only eco-friendly but also cost effective.
Badal also thanked Goyal for acceding to the State Government’s request to install smart meters over a period of next three years which would help the PSPCl to check the power pilferage and theft to great extent.
On the issue of Coal linkage the Deputy Chief Minister requested the Ministry of Coal to formulate a uniform policy to allocate 100 per cent coal from domestic sources to landlocked states and used imported coal in coastal States to bring down the power tariffs in landlocked areas.