KSEBOA - KSEB Officers' Association

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Sugar factories, which are setting up co-generation projects in Maharashtra, have made demand for increasing the power purchase rate that has been fixed by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL).The factories will soon approach the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for resolving their demand and also making a plea for relaxing the condition that 50 per cent of the power generated by sugar factories should be sold to MSEDCL, state cooperatives minister Harshavardhan Patil said.

Speaking to mediapersons, Patil also announced that a forum will be formed for preparing a marketing policy for power generated by sugar factories. Members of the forum will include sugar commissioner, officials of the Vasantdada Sugar Institute, and State Sugar Federation.
"The rate is not affordable to the industries, and also power is purchased at a much higher rate in the market," Patil said. A few factories will submit their plea to the MERC and also make a presentation on how the rate is not affordable to them.

Patil said a total of 55 sugar factories have been selected for setting up power co-generation projects in the state. Around 562 MW power would be available from 16 sugar factories by the end of December this year. The total investment for power co-generation projects at these factories would be to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore for which administrative approval has been given, he said.

Proposals of remaining sugar factories are also be scrutinised. Five sugar factories will be taking up power co-generation projects on build-operate-transfer basis. "We have set a target to generate 1,500 MW power by the end of 2010," Patil said.

Asserting that the number of sugar factories selected for co-generation will be limited to only 55, Patil said the selection has been done after thorough scrutiny and fulfilment of various criteria. Factories taking up power co-generation projects are given various benefits and subsidies. The sanctioning of loans for the projects too would be done in a speedy manner, he added.

Meanwhile, 39 sugar factories, which have exported sugar, will soon be given their subsidy dues. The total exports this year have been 27 lakh metric tonnes. While Rs 48 crore have been released by the state government recently, a provision of Rs 128 crore has been made in the Budget, he added.

Source - Times of India