Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Minister of State for Power (Independent Charge), is undeterred by the unfavourable environment which the country’s power sector is facing today, and is confident of achieving the targets set in his sector for the 12th and 13th Plans.
The target for 12th Plan is more than 88,000 MW of which 60,000-65,000 MW is thermal. For the 13th Plan the target is around 93,000 MW.
The power sector today not only faces fuel supply issues, but also the financial health of the State Distribution Utilities and funding of new projects are big constraints.
The Minister has taken up a ‘dashboard’ concept to get going. This helps him to prioritise and follow up issues on time. What is termed as dashboard is basically an excel sheet of agenda which the Minister, in consultation with his officials, maintains and prepares a chart of priority job list and aligns it with timelines.
The first list is macro-planning related and the second goes into details of every issue. This is a monitoring as well as audit system, he says adding, it is also a team effort.
“Dashboard is not rocket science. This basically gives you the capability to follow and ensure that you actually deliver what you prioritise,” Scindia said.
Scindia said he learnt the dashboard concept while handling the Department of Post, when he was Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology.
Discom restructuring
“All States have committed to come on-board. We are looking at re-structuring of short-term liability of close to Rs 1.20 lakh crore. As far as the customer base is concerned that is tied up. The only thing that is pending is the finalisation of transitional financing mechanism, which lies with the Ministry of Finance. The minute that is finalised…we would go ahead,” he said.
On whether the States have got their respective Cabinet nods, he said, “Everything is committed and done as far as States are concerned. We have identified six-seven targeted States,” he said adding that of this, one or two didn’t come on board and were replaced by some other States.
Fuel Supply Agreements
“We have signed FSAs for 21,000 MW. NTPC’s issues were also cleared and they are going for it. From September 2013, for first time, a third party audit system will be introduced. This will be a clause in the FSA,” he said.
Hydro Projects
“In the past 90-100 days, we were able to get environment and forest clearances for about 2,500 MW of hydro projects across the board. Hydro does face environment and social issues. These are project specific, Central and federal issues. We are trying to work on project-to-project basis.
“I have written to Chief Ministers of Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh to resolve issues related to hydro projects in these States. I can only do my best in the bandwidth I have. I am slowly plugging every issue,” he said.
Changes in accounting standards
To prevent the projects from turning into NPAs, private power producers have approached the Ministry for change in Accounting Standards 10 and 16, to allow provisioning of capitalisation of borrowing cost for the stranded gas-fired power units. On this the Minister said, “we are in consultation with the concerned Ministry”.