CHANDIGARH: Taking a big leap into future in Renewable Energy sector, the Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) Tuesday signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with seven Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the presence of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Chander Mohan.

These projects would generate 686 MW of power through 21 biomass power projects and four wind energy based power projects at a total cost of Rs 3300 crore.

While interacting with the representatives of IPPs, the Chief Minister emphasized the need of early completion of these projects in a time bound manner. He said that Energy being the upper most ingredients for growth and development, the present Government had given top priority to harness all sorts of energy through launching of several projects. The notification of policy in November 2005 to encourage the private investors to set up renewable energy power projects in the State was a step towards this direction. The policy aimed at promoting generation of electricity through renewable energy sources. This would be the future of energy generation; he said adding that only the speedy setting up of these projects with a time lag of 20 moths after signing the Power Purchase Agreement for Biomass projects and 26 months for Wind projects, the people, the producers and the Government would be benefited, he added.

Earlier, in his presentation, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Renewable Energy Department, Mr. S.C.Chaudhary informed that the biomass based power projects would generate 246 MW of power and the wind energy based power projects would produce 440 MW power and these would start generation of power by the mid of 2009.

The Director, Haryana Renewable Energy Department and HAREDA, Sumita Misra, then signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with seven Independent Power Producers (IPPs) on behalf of HAREDA in the presence of Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda. In case of setting up of biomass power projects, the MoUs were signed with five IPPs, namely M/s Starwire India Ltd., New Delhi, M/s Gammon India Ltd., Mumbai, M/s Tecpro Energy Pvt. Ltd. Chennai, M/s Jyoti Biomass Power Ltd., Hyderabad and M/s Turboatom -TPS Projects Ltd., New Delhi. Similarly, in case of setting up of wind energy based power projects, the MoUs were signed with two IPPs including, M/s Suzlon Energy Ltd., Pune and M/s. Enercon India Ltd., Mumbai.

Misra said that the power generated by these projects would be purchased by the Power Utilities on the tariff decided by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission as per provisions in the Electricity Act, 2003. The Commission has already fixed the tentative tariff and had invited comments from the stake holders for finalising the tariff. She said that these renewable energy projects would not only be environment friendly, but these would also help in reducing the power cuts during the peak hours. As these power generation projects would be located near the load centres, these would help in reducing the transmission losses.