The Government is exploring the possibility of seeding a ‘power fund’ which would pick up stressed assets in the country and revive them.

“We are looking at seeding a power fund with support from international investors. The international investors are very keen to invest and participate in India’s power sector. This fund could then pick up stressed power plants and revive them,” Piyush Goyal, the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy said at a press conference to mark the one year of the NDA Government.

However, the Minister added that the problems of the power sector are being exaggerated and things are not as desperate as they are made out to be.

On renewable energy, the Goyal said the Government hopes to bid out 15,817 MW of solar power generation capacity soon.

“We have a roadmap in place to ramp up the solar mission to 100 GW by 2022. Already, 17 solar parks have been approved. We also aim to get educated unemployed youth to become solar entrepreneurs for 20,000 MW,” said Goyal.

The Minister added that a self-hedging mechanism to allow foreign investors of solar power projects to get dollar tariffs is being worked out.

Under the mechanism, distribution utilities quote their price (the rate at which they will buy from the generator) in dollars for 25-year contracts, but the end consumer will be sold the electricity in rupees.

The Minister also indicated that by raising the coal cess four-fold over the last year to ₹ 200 per tonne, ₹ 30,500 crore is expected to be generated this year. Proceeds from the coal cess go to the National Clean Energy Fund.

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