The Hindu : National : Redefine “commissioning of power projects”: PMO

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Redefine “commissioning of power projects”: PMO

Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI: Seeking to address the ground reality and change the way of working of public sector power companies, the Prime Minister’s Office has directed the Power Ministry to change the definition of “commissioning of projects” and use the Commercial Operation Date (COD) as the relevant milestone.

In a letter to Power Secretary Anil Razdan, the PMO has said there is need for a specific milestone to unequivocally determine the actual addition to power generation capacity in the country.

Unrestricted use of a diverse set of distinct events — “commissioning,” synchronisation and commercial operation —could lead to confusion about actual capacity addition. So all reports sent to the PMO on capacity addition should use the COD as the relevant term.

Issue advisory

The PMO advised the Secretary to issue an advisory immediately to everyone concerned for all future communication and description of projects put on stream.

During inspections and reviews, it was found that even projects which were declared commissioned during 2006-07 and 2007-08 and inaugurated by Ministers and officials did not generate even a single unit of electricity. These include the Kehalgaon thermal project in Uttar Pradesh, the Sipat thermal project in Madhya Pradesh and the Dhul Hasti hydropower project in Jammu and Kashmir.

The matter was also raised by Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh, who expressed his disgust at the definition of “commissioning of projects” and urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to address the issue which was creating illusion about capacity addition.

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