State Seeks its Due for Energy

BHUBANESWAR:One of the major contributors to the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF), the State has demanded its due share from the national kitty for promotion of renewable energy generation.

 The Centre has been collecting a cess of `50 per tonne of coal produced or imported from the year 2000 for research and development of clean energy technology. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitey enhanced the cess to `100 per tonne in the Budget this year.

The NCEF corpus has swelled to `10,127 crore by March, 2014 and with the doubling of cess, it is expected to grow by another `6,800 crore during the current financial year.

 While coal-bearing States, including Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have been making significant contribution to NCEF, major beneficiaries of the fund are western States.

The Centre has been generously assisting Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra to facilitate generation of solar energy in a big way, official sources said.

  “The State has a long list of projects which are in urgent need of funds. Any amount of assistance from NCEF will be of great help to implement the project in time and meet the green energy obligation,” said Minister of State for Energy Pranab Prakash Das.

As per the renewable purchase obligation (RPO) of Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission, the State utilities have to buy or generate at least 5 per cent green power.

 The State has targeted to instal capacity of 350 MW from solar, wind and bio-mass sources during the 12th Plan period.

The renewable energy potential in the State has been assessed at about 16,000 MW by Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA).

 Situated in a temperate zone, having considerable sunshine round the year, the long sea cost with fair wind velocity and the vast mountain range with small fountains, the State is a promising destination for generation of green energy. This can be converted into reality, if the Centre paid due attention to the State, Das said.

 As the Union Finance Ministry is managing NCEF, the Ministry and New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has little say over fund distribution.

Even though NCEF is flush with money, MNRE is reported to have received about `500 crore till July 2014 and has utilised only `1.6 crore in the last three years.

The Energy Minister said he will raise the issue during the next conference of the State Power Ministers scheduled on September 9 in New Delhi.

State Seeks its Due for Energy