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Government set to resolve issue of stressed power assets: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: The government is close to resolving the problem of stressed power assets with genuine issues of finance, fuel or clearances, power, coal, renewable energy and mines minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.  “We are close to resolution of stressed thermal power projects soon where developers are not wilful defaulters or there are no significant irregularities,” Goyal said at anews conference. He said extensive engagements have been held among stakeholders including banks, financial institutions and officials of states and central government. Banks are taking proactive measures and the government is working with them to find a win-win situation. “We are finding this not as a challenge, but as an opportunity to bring costs down,” Goyal said.  The power ministry has firmed up a revival policy for stalled hydro projects totalling 11,639 MW by dispensing Rs 16,709 crore till 2024-25. The government has decided to provide interest subvention of about 4% to developers to turn around hydro projects.  Goyal also said the power ministry and the Niti Aayog are jointly working on a policy for the next 25 years to ensure the right energy mix. He said the dynamic policy will keep changing with the technology.  Goyal said the growth in renewable energy generation capacity in the last year has been more than growth in conventional projects. He said he expects renewable energy capacity to surpass thermal power by 2022. While nearly two-thirds of the power plants were reeling under critically low coal stocks in 2014, there is no shortage of coal now.  Through reduced coal imports to make the nation self-reliant, foreign exchange worth Rs 25,900 crore has been saved, he said. Mines secretary Arun Kumar said his ministry has no plans to cap the prices of iron ore as there is no shortage of the steel-making raw material. Goyal said the mines ministry is framing a policy to enable auctioning of offshore mines.

He said there is currently a restraint on auctioning offshore blocks and the mines ministry is working with the law ministry to make the structure for auction.