As Union home secretary RK Singh joins the Council of Ministers as the power minister replacing Piyush Goyal, he’s likely to face some challenges in the new sector, reports CNBC-TV18. Apart from the overall challenge to increase in PPAs, generation and demand, the power power sector may pose other challenges to the newly appointed minister. One of the major challenges would include reviving power demand as well as a resolution for stressed assets in coal, gas and hydro-based projects. Coal alone has 34 stressed assets with a debt of about 1.77 lakh crore. Another big area that requires government’s attention is to take measures to bring in operational efficiency in the state-backed discoms. UDAY schemes have been one of the biggest achievements of the government but making it operational without losses will be crucial for 2019. According to the report, the separation of content and carriage under the Electricity Amendment Act, where the consumer will get an option of choosing their own electricity supplier, holds importance as it directly involves the consumers.
In the renewable energy space, the speed of all the bids for solar and wind projects needs to be expedited to reach the 175GW target set by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The solar rooftop projects, which have a target of 40,000 MW by 2022, will require focus too. Tariffs are at a historic low of Rs 2.44 for solar and Rs 3.36 for wind-generated energy.
Source:MoneyControl
