Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister RK Singh on Thursday said the government will crack down on developers of power projects, who miss the scheduled commercial date of operation or deadline to complete the project.
Addressing a CII conference, Singh said the electricity generation capacity addition is a big challenge, as people are sitting on several projects won under the bidding process.
Singh said that all these projects (power projects) are won under the bidding process and if they miss the SCOD (scheduled commercial date of operation or deadline to complete the project), then the developer will be banned from participating in project bidding for one year.
On the second such incident, the developer will be banned for five years, Singh said, adding that he is going to put this (rule) in (policy). Power project developers are waiting for demand to grow but this will not happen, he said.
Singh also said that until battery energy storage becomes viable, India would have to add thermal power capacity to meet the demand. At present, the battery storage is ₹10 per unit and the energy rate is ₹2.30, he explained.
He also said that he is pushing the case for another production-linked incentive scheme for grid-scale battery energy storage.