MP Govt to promote power generation from non-conventional resources

Bhopal, Sep 26 (UNI) In order to encourage power generation through non-conventional resources, the Madhya Pradesh government today approved a policy for facilitating establishment of such units in private sector.

A state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan decided to allow an industry, institution or a private unit to set up projects based on non-conventional sources like wind energy, bio-mass, solar energy etc either itself or in the form of a joint venture.

Under the policy, the projects would enjoy the status of an industry and would receive all the benefits provided to industries, an official release said here today.

The minimum capacity of the project would be 5 KW for a solar photovoltaic plant, while the maximum limit for biomass and wind energy projects would be based on its available capacity.

Sale of electricity from one company to anther would be considered captive utilisation.

The unit could consume the power generated from the project itself or sell it to the M P State Electricity Board or some other consumer in the state. The public sector units would also be eligible to be applicant for the facility as a consumer unit or for the utilisation as a producer.

After obtaining permission from the state government, the solar energy and wind energy based units will have to set up the project within three months and biomass urban waste based units within nine months.

Prices of power generated from non-conventional sources would be fixed by the M P State Electricity Regulatory Commission on the basis of minimum rates fixed by the state government, if it does so.

However, the project unit would be able to do third party sale under the existing legislations and orders, for which the generation unit and the consumer unit would be able to decide on the sale rates mutually.

A Green Energy Fund would be set up from the proceeds collected as cess from the power consumers in the state. This fund would be utilised for development of generation through non-conventional sources and development of basic facilities under Energy Conservation Act, the release added.

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