(a) whether the Government are considering for setting up a National Energy
Conservation Award to provide technical and financial assistance to the upcoming power
projects; and
(b) if so, the steps taken by the Government to attract private investment in power
sector?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF POWER( SHRIMATI JAYAWANTI MEHTA )
(a) : The Government of India launched a National Energy Conservation Award
scheme in 1991 to give recognition to industrial units, in production for at least three
years, in identified large/medium/small scale industry and have made special efforts to
save energy and environment.
(b) : Steps taken to attract private investment in the power sector include :-
(i) Private Sector can set up power projects of any size and any type thermal
project on conventional fuel, hydel projects or non-conventional based on
wind/solar energy.
(ii) Debt: equity ratio up to 4:1 allowed.
(iii) 100% foreign equity participation allowed in generation, transmission &
distribution.
(iv) Guidelines also issued for tariff based competitive bidding (availability based
tariff) for thermal power stations.
(v) Award of power projects, with a few exceptions, through International
Competitive Bidding (ICB) route made mandatory from 18.2.1995 onwards.
(vi) Powers for grant of environmental clearance decentralized to the extent
feasible.
(vii) Capital cost limits exceeding which techno-economic clearance is required
from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), raised suitably.
(viii) Automatic approval for foreign investment without any upper limit.
(ix) Relaxation of 40% cap on debt exposure by Indian Financial Institutions.