Recently, the Ministry of Power has announced a Scheme for Procurement of Aggregate Power of 4500 MW on competitive basis for five years on Finance, Own and Operate (FOO) basis under B (v) of SHAKTI Policy.
What are the Key Features of the Scheme?
Under the scheme, PFC Consulting Ltd has invited bids for the supply of 4,500 MW.
PFC Consulting Limited (A wholly owned subsidiary of PFC Ltd) has been designated as the Nodal Agency by the Ministry of Power.
The Ministry of Coal has been requested to allocate around 27 MTPA (Million Tonnes per Annum) for this.
This scheme is expected to help the states that are facing power shortage and also help generation plants to increase their capacities.
What is SHAKTI Policy?
About:
Ministry of Power (MoP) in 2017 cleared the Coal Linkage Policy known as SHAKTI (Scheme to Harness and Allocate Koyla Transparently in India).
The Policy provides coal linkages to power plants which lack fuel supply agreements (FSAs) through coal auctions.
Objectives:
The aim of the Shakti scheme is to ensure the availability of coal to all the Thermal Power Plants in India, in a way that is transparent and objective.
The scheme is supposed to be beneficial not just for the infrastructure sector, but also for the public sector banks which have huge loans unpaid at the end of the power companies.
The scheme also aims to reduce the dependence on imported coal and promote domestic industries.
