The Union Minister for Power RK Singh with the Chief Minister of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, in New Delhi on Monday, February 27, 2023. Photo Credit: PTI
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday said the Center should agree to waive the mandatory Rail-Sea-Rail (RSR) mode condition for supply of coal from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) to Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) in the state. Has gone.
An official release here said Mann met Union Power Minister RK Singh in Delhi.
He thanked the Minister for relaxing the mandatory RSR condition for supply of coal to the State.
Shri Mann raised this issue with the Power Minister during a meeting on 9th December, 2022 and also wrote a letter to him in this regard.
Shri Mann said that the Union Minister had conveyed to him that as far as transportation of coal is concerned, the Government of India does not specify any particular route or port and transportation is entirely the responsibility of the respective states or generators, adding May add coal should be allocated to Punjab from MCL and if Punjab can transport it by any other means, it is welcome to do so.
Punjab’s ruling party AAP had earlier slammed the Center for asking the state government to lift coal using the Rail-Ship-Rail (RSR) mode, claiming it would put additional financial burden on the state power utility.
The power ministry had asked Punjab State Power Corporation Limited to start lifting 15-20% of its domestic coal requirement through rail-ship-rail mode.
Raising another issue, the CM urged Union Minister RK Singh to increase the supply of coal from the Pachwara coal mine.
Shri Mann said that the matter of increasing the supply of coal from captive coal mines in Pachwara (Central) is currently pending with the Ministry of Coal.
“The Ministry of Power has already forwarded the matter to the Ministry of Coal with positive recommendations and the matter has reportedly been sent by the Ministry of Coal to the Law Ministry for legal review, he said, adding that he sought the intervention of the Union Minister for Power to expedite the matter. sought intervention. case,” he said.
The chief minister urged Mr Singh to ask the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to procure 3,000 MW of renewable energy round-the-clock (RE-RTC) power for the state.
He said PSPCL had given its in-principle approval to SECI for procurement of 3,000 MW of RE-RTC power in August 2022.
He said that there is complementarity in demand of power in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh and SECI is working on a joint proposal.
Due to non-finalisation of the standard bid document, SECI has not been able to proceed in this regard, Mr Mann said, due to which the matter has been pending for a long time.
He requested the intervention of the Union Minister so that the Ministry could finalize the issue at the earliest so that SECI could take steps for procurement of RE-RTC power for the State.
Seeking allocation of power from coal based Central Sector Generating Stations (CGS) to PSPCL, Shri Mann apprised Shri Singh that the failure of winter rains in Punjab has led to a sharp increase in power demand since January .
It is also expected that the trend of sharp increase in demand during the harvesting season in FY 2023-24 will also continue.
Mr. Mann said that Punjab had met a power demand of 14,300 MW during the last paddy season and the power ministry had sanctioned unallocated power to Punjab from central sector generating stations during June to September 2022.
He said that the State Government was duty bound to ensure that there was no power shortage during the upcoming summer and paddy season. Mr Mann said the state’s peak power demand is expected to reach 15,500 MW this year.
Therefore, he said that in order to meet the demand of over 15,000 MW and meet the additional requirement required for paddy crop, the State needs assistance from the Ministry of Power to allocate power from its unallocated pool.