NEW DELHI: The Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Monday sought "expeditious Central approval and assistance" for generating additional 8200 MWs of electricity in the state over the next three and half years.

Badal was speaking at the All India Chief Ministers' Conference on Power Sector Reforms at Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi.   

In addition, Badal also urged the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to release Rs.9842 crore which the state government was due to receive under the rural electrification scheme and the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APRDP).  

The Conference was chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Union Finance Minister P.Chidambaram, Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Union Heavy Industries Minister antosh Mohan Dev and Deputy Chairman Planning Commission of India Montek Singh Ahluwalia also attended.  

The Prime Minister assured Badal that all the proposed power projects for the state would be taken on a priority basis for expeditious completion.  

Making a strong plea for the Central assisted power projects, Mr.Badal said that the Punjab should be allotted 25%  extra power i.e. approximately (1300 MWs) (over and above normal share) from future hydro projects and Central Sector Projects such as NTPC Koldam, Lohari Nagpala, Tapovan Vishnugarh, Teesta-II, IV, Lower Subansiri and Koteshwar,  (1500 MWs) of power from Lara Thermal Power Project in Chhatisgarh, (200 MWs) from the Badarpur Extension (2x250) Thermal Power Station of NTPC, (700 MWs) from 2x700 MWs Rajasthan Atomic Power Projects (RAPP) units 7 and 8 in lieu of 49% of equity participation.   Besides the Chief Minister also urged the GoI to allocate 4.5 million metric standard cubic meter gas per day for Doraha GCGT Station of 1000 MWs and the Gas Authority of India Ltd should be advised for giving connectivity to Punjab from the National Gas Grid through Dadari-Nangal pipeline.

Giving the breakup of the Centrally assisted Power Projects, the Chief Minister also asked the Centre to immediately release Rs.165 crore under Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) for providing electricity supply to all the rural households in Punjab.  These schemes were aimed at provision of 4.04 lac electric connections to rural households including 1.49 lac BPL households, who do not have electric connections so far.  

Unfortunately, the Rural Electrification Corporation has sanctioned only one scheme of Rs. 22.97 crore for Ferozepur district so far but the funds for this scheme have also not been released.

Outlining the salient features of the Rural Electrification Plan (REP), Mr.Badal said that the State Government had prepared a blue print requiring a sum of Rs. 9534 crore during the 11th Five Year Plan, 2007-2012, which would be sent to the Ministry of Power, GoI.   He impressed upon the Ministry of Power, GoI and the Planning Commission to provide liberal financial assistance for our proposed initiatives for full and effective rural electrification.    He pointed out that Punjab achieved 100% village electrification in 1976 and it had installed requisite electrical infrastructure in the rural areas about 30 years back. The existing electrical infrastructure was thus too old and it needed a major strengthening, upgradation, renovation and modernization. Besides, there were a large number of Deras and Dhanies i.e. hamlets, which needed to be provided with electrical infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted power supply to them.

The Chief Minister declared that the state government plans to add 3500 MWs to the existing generation capacity to make the state fully self-sufficient and capable of ensuring round the clock uninterrupted power supply.   He pointed out that the present generation capacity was only 6200 MWs whereas the peak demand was 9000 MWs leading to shortfall of 30%.  In order to meet the shortfall, the State Government has drawn a comprehensive programme of generation capacity addition comprising Lehra Mohabbat Phase –II(500 MWs), Goindwal Sahib Thermal Power Project (600 MWs), Talwandi Sabo Thermal Power Project (1200 MWs) and  Nabha Thermal Power Project (1200 MWs).  These arrangements were, however, not sufficient to meet the increased power demand of the State, which was estimated to be over 11000 MWs in the year 2012.

Unfolding the plans to make Punjab a power surplus from deficit state, Mr.Badal demanded from GoI to set up atleast 2 Central Sector Power Plants of 1000 MWs each in Punjab, to help it to overcome the shortage of power unlike other States in the northern region. Punjab should be allocated 30% power from unallocated power of Central Sector Plants in the northern region. The GoI India should encourage inter-state cooperation in hydro power generation.   States like Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal should make preferential allotment of hydro power potential sites to the neighbouring States. Punjab should also be allocated power from the Nuclear Power Project to be set up at Banswara in Rajasthan and GoI should advise the Gas Authority of India to expedite gas connectivity to Punjab through Dadri-Nangal pipeline. 

Emphasizing on the need for co-generation and captive generation, Badal said that the state was actively encouraging Captive generation and Co-generation and use of Generator sets. No Electricity Duty was levied on Captive Power generated for self-consumption. The State Government had already notified a Non Renewable Sources of Energy (NRSE) policy to provide a number of incentives for the NRSE Project developers and had requested the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) to implement the NRSE policy in its next tariff order to encourage co-generation and captive generation. The State Electricity Board had further taken steps to provide more incentives to NRSE project developers like waiving of parallel operation charges and permission fee, etc.

Referring to the energy efficiency measures initiated by the state government, Badal said that PSEB had formulated a project of Rs. 270 crore to ensure use of Compact Florescent Lamps (CFLs) by its 50 lac consumers. The project would help to save 640 MWs of power when fully implemented. Punjab had made use of CFLs compulsory for all government offices and buildings including the Government Guest Houses and the State run Corporations, Boards and Cooperative Organizations.   Punjab Government agrees to reduce the rate of VAT on CFLs to a minimum level provided such a rate is uniform in all States. The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers should evolve a consensus in this regard. Besides, Punjab has also prepared a roadmap to reduce the AT& C losses to 15% by 2011-12.  It was estimated that various projects and schemes to be undertaken by PSEB to reduce the losses would involve an investment of Rs. 5600 crore over a period of 5 years. The Government of India should provide the requisite financial assistance to PSEB.

Under the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP), Badal pleaded that the Government of India should give due flexibility to the States in selection and implementation of various activities under the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP), without binding the states to a pre-defined route of implementation of reform measures. The programme should be extended both to rural and urban areas.  He also asked the GoI to release the pending payments of incentives of Rs. 142.52 crore for the year 2003-04.

The Chief Minister solicited Centre's liberal support and financial assistance during the 11 th Five Year Plan for all our initiatives aimed at accelerated generation capacity addition, reduction in losses, full and effective rural electrification and energy conservation.

Badal was accompanied by his Media Advisor Harcharan Bains, Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister DS Guru, Secretary Power & Irrigation Suresh Kumar and Chairman PSEB YS Ratra.