The Hindu Business Line : Private power will be costly, says CII

The Confederation of Indian Industry, which has welcomed the Tamil Nadu Government’s proposal to allow third party sale of power, said that the Government needs to work on alternatives to ensure power supply at reasonable cost.

Third party sale enables private power generating facilities sell surplus power directly to a consumer instead of the prevailing practice of selling power to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board alone.

The press release from CII quoting Mr Manikam Ramaswami, Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu State Council, said that power from private power producers would be available only at high prices and will have an adverse impact on industrial growth.

To sustain manufacturing sector the State Government has to make available power at reasonable cost.

The Government has to utilise the furnace oil and diesel-fuelled captive power available with the industry to generate at least 1,500 MW of additional power.

It will have to come out with a support policy for the additional cost of power from captive power facilities. This would support the small and medium enterprises that cannot afford to avail of the third party sale of power.

The CII also welcomed the proposal to provide incentives for new generation capacity, facilitating merchant power project proposals and the waiver of the cross subsidy surcharge on third party sale.

The 25 per cent subsidy for micro, small and medium enterprises to purchase 125 KVA generators is a welcome move, the release said.

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