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States can have own model for power reforms: Prabhu

Our Bureau

HYDERABAD, July 20

THE Union Minister for Power, Mr Suresh Prabhu, has said that there is no need of adopting a uniform model of power sector reforms in the country. The States have the liberty to adopt their own models provided the objective was to attain commercial viab ility of the power sector, he said.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr Prabhu said that it did not matter whether the States adopted a cooperative or corporate model and whether it was the public sector or the private sector as long as the objective was to attain commercial v iability. The policy of the Centre was that the State Governments should first decide about the independent power projects (IPPs) to be established in their area.

The Minister said that he was trying to benchmark the per MW cost of power generation based on which the projected capital cost of the IPPs could be evaluated. The benchmark could be fixed in accordance to the cost of generation to be incurred by a new N TPC Super Critical Technology power project going to be established in the country.

This apart, the cost of power generation could be worked out backward after deciding the benchmark for tariffs. The whole exercise was aimed at reducing the delivered cost of power, Mr Prabhu referring to the wide variation in per MW cost of power gener ation by IPPs.

Earlier, inaugurating a workshop on ``Power Sector Reforms: Review of Experience'', organised by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Mr Prabhu said that only 31 per cent of country's population had electricity today with 4 lakh hamlets and 80,000 villages remaining without electric supply.

He said the on-going reforms in the power sector should target at mitigating their plight.

Explaining the purpose of the two-day workshop, Mr. T. L. Shanker, former Principal of ASCI, said there were some important objectives behind starting reforms. The reforms were aimed at having adequate, good quality power at affordable price.

Pic.: The Union Power Minister, Mr Suresh Prabhu, the Union Public Service Commission Member, Mr P. Abraham, the Project Director of the Karnataka Power Sector Reform and Restructuring Project, Mr Daniel A. Potash, and the Chairman and Managing Director, BSES, Mr R.V. Shahi at the inaugural session of the two-day workshop on power sector reforms in Hyderabad on Friday.

Picture by A. Roy Chowdhury