Coal news and updates

Bill replacing coal block ordinance to have ‘small changes’

The Bill to replace the ordinance on Coal Mines (Special Provision) will have, amongst others, small technical changes in the definition of private parties.

“The Bill was cleared on Tuesday. There are some small technical changes, including that in the definition of private parties,” the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, said on Wednesday after the launch of the Indian Wind Energy Alliance (IWEA).

The Centre promulgated an ordinance to begin work on auction/allocation of coal blocks de-allocated following the Supreme Court verdict of September 24. The Bill replaces the ordinance and will now be tabled in Parliament.

Wind power

Meanwhile, Goyal said the Centre is willing to buy electricity from wind power producers but it will have be at competitively bid tariffs.

Speaking at the launch of the IWEA, Goyal was commenting on the industry body’s suggestion for increasing demand for wind power to meet the Centre’s target of setting up 10,000 MW of wind power capacity every year.

IWEA had recommended that a central body should purchase power at tariffs regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. Currently, all the wind power generated in the country is sold to State governments.

“I am open to the idea of central procurement, but it will have to be on a competitive bid basis,” said Goyal.

The Minister added that changes in the Electricity Act, 2003 and the Tariff Policy will strengthen the penalty mechanism for renewable purchase obligation. “The changes will also introduce a renewable power generation obligation wherein generators seeking to set up power plants will have to dedicate 10 per cent of their capacity to renewable sources,” Goyal added.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine