The government intends to push for the passage of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2014 this monsoon session.
Piyush Goel, the Minister of state for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy, said the bill makes it obligatory for coal and lignite based thermal generators to produce 10 per cent of their installed capacity as renewable energy.
The government, he said, favours the idea of people being able to choose their power distributor (discom) much in the way they can choose their mobile service provider. But given the resistance to this from various state governments and discoms, the states will be asked to spell their 5-year roadmap in this direction.
Talking to the media, Goel said power production had gone up by 7.03 % in the last two years, and attributed it to energy efficiency in the sector that was plagued with the problem of many plants designed for imported coal. "India never thought we will be coal surplus, use fly ash etc" the minister said.
With 24x7 power surplus, the states were able to use the Vidyut Pravah app, and purchase power any time. If there are power cuts, it is only because the concerned state governments are not purchasing, or are diverting to certain places or sectors, he said.
