Tamilnadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa seeks Prime Minister’s intervention in the wind energy projects
Posted on: 17/Sep/2013 11:20:10 AM
Tamilnadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to obtain approval for two of its wind energy projects and grants of Rs 1,500 Crore from the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF).
In the letter to the Prime Minister, The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has stated, “Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) chaired by the Finance Secretary had on May 18 last has taken the stand that transmission schemes for renewable energy cannot be supported from the NCEF. The two projects with a total cost of Rs 3,758 Crore were already cleared by the Ministry of New and renewable Energy, Central Electricity Authority and recommended by the Union Planning Commission. It is distressing to find that the IMG is going against the Government of India’s guidelines to deny Tamil Nadu, which is a flagship state in harnessing clean renewable energy; the much needed support for a project which has for long been a felt need. I completely fail to see the justification for the IMG’s stand and referred to Ministry of New and Renewable Energy`s letter to the Finance Ministry seeking to reconsider its stance. Being a State endowed with very limited conventional sources of energy, but with a high potential for renewable and an enviable track record of effectively harnessing such energy, Tamil Nadu fully deserves the support of the Government of India to create the intra State Green Energy Corridor. The government had proposed the projects to overcome the problem of lack of adequate power evacuation infrastructure which prevented the state from reaping the full benefit of installed capacity for wind energy generation.”
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy validated two of the three proposals sent by the state at a total cost of Rs 3,758 Crore and recommended approval of a grant of Rs 1,500 Crore from the NCEF in accordance with the guidelines which limit assistance from the Fund to 40 percent of the project cost.
The state government has sought Rs 1,508 Crore for establishing renewable power evacuation corridors in a first phase, consisting of 400 KV substation along with associated transmission lines in five locations and another Rs 2,250 Crore establishing similar facilities in the second phase at two locations.
