The central government is looking at stepping in to support the wind power producers who has been waiting for long to recover bills from some of the power distribution companies, said Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy.

The Union minister also said said that the centre would support the energy producers from the National Clean Energy Fund to overcome the financial issues faced due to the non payment of discoms. The central government will step in to support,” said Abdullah.

He also said the Generation Based Incentive (GBI) scheme, once it is announced, should be calculated from the beginning of a fiscal year, rather than calculating it from the beginning of the month the incentive would get established.

The GBI, which was discontinued by the end of last fiscal year, which was an incentive of 50 paise per generated unit with a cap of Rs 62.5 lakh per mega watt of capacity. The industry had appealed the GBI should be 80 paise per unit for 10 years, without a cap, which would help the industry to enjoy the benefits after fulfilling its financial commitments like repayment of loans.

He also said that wind energy industry should not suffer due to lower tariff while the other sectors see an increase of price according to the increase of cost. He said that the ministry would take up the matter with the concerned ministry soon.

He also offered his ministry’s support for the wind energy industry to ease their difficulties and work better towards providing more power to the country. He also requested the industry to upgrade with latest technology for better results.

Further the government is planning to set up geothermal power projects and the first geothermal project is expected to come up in Ladakh.

With a present installed capacity of over around 26 GW of grid-connected power, India today stands among the top five countries of the world in terms of renewable energy capacity. Renewable power represents about 12 per cent of total installed electricity generation capacity in India. This represents an almost 150 per cent increase in the past five years alone. Investment in renewable energy grew by 52 per cent last year and contributed nearly $10.3 billion.

The government is planning to add around 30 GW of renewable power by during the 12th Five Year Plan.

Government Provides Rs. 137.62 Crore Subsidy on Solar Water Heaters

Government Provides Rs. 137.62 Crore Subsidy on Solar Water Heaters

The Minister of New and Renewable Energy, DR. FAROOQ ABDULLAH informed Lok Sabha today that the Government provides a capital subsidy of 30% of the benchmark cost of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal systems including solar water heaters to the beneficiaries in general category states through state nodal agencies, system integrators and other channel partners. However, in case of special category states, this subsidy is up to 90% of benchmark cost of solar photovoltaic for certain applications and 60% for solar thermal systems including solar water heaters. 

A total amount of Rs. 137.62 crore has been provided as subsidy to various beneficiaries in the country on solar water heaters during the last three years. 

Tamil Nadu utility restrained from cutting power to wind mills

Chennai, Dec 7 (IANS) In a major relief to members of the Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association (TASMA), the Madras High Court has restrained Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO) not to resort to load shedding for those having dedicated feeder lines and wind mills.

According to K. Venkatachalam, chief advisor at TASMA, the court Thursday granted an interim injunction restraining TANGEDCO from resorting to load shedding for dedicated feeder consumers having wind energy.

The court also restrained TANGEDCO from insisting such consumers to purchase power from others for availing power during load shedding, Venkatachalam told IANS Friday.

TASMA took the state power utility to court for cutting off power to its members despite having dedicated power feeder lines and having huge power credit in their power banking account.

Power banking is like cash banking, whereby wind power producers feed in the electricity generated by their wind mills to the state grid and then draw that power for captive use within a year or encash the same.

According to Venkatachalam, TASMA members have invested around Rs.1 crore in dedicated feeder lines and as such the wind mills are like any other captive power plants.

He said since the wind mills and the points of consumption are located at different places, the power generated by the machines is fed into the state grid paying wheeling charges as well to TANGEDCO.

TASMA members account for around 3,500 MW of wind power installed in the state.

Only last month in another case filed by TASMA, TANGEDCO had agreed to settle within two months its dues to the members of the latter owning wind mills in the state.