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CHINESE
DELEGATION IN INDIA TO STUDY REFORMS OF INDIAN POWER SECTOR
In
an effort to provide further fillip to the ongoing process of Indo-Sino
bilateral and economic cooperation, a delegation of the China Electricity
Council (CEC) met with representatives of Indian power industry
yesterday, to understand the reforms being undertaken in the Indian
power sector. The delegation also sought to understand the position
of protection of power equipment and facilities. China has been
facing the problem of protection of the power plant facilities and
need to make amendments in their legislation for better regulation.
The meeting was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII) here, yesterday.
Leader of the CEC delegation, Mr
Lu Changui, while presenting an overview of the Chinese power sector,
said that China had installed power generation capacity of 400 GW
and per capita consumption of 1300 units, but was still facing power
shortages. Mr Changui said that plans were afoot to double the installed
capacity to 800 GW by the year 2020.
CEC is a non-profit ,social and economic
organisation founded with the approval of the State Council in 1988,
is the consolidated agency of all China's power enterprises and
institutions.
Mr Changui while briefing the Indian
side on the regulatory reforms being undertaken mentioned that China
had constituted the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC),
a law enforcement agency directly under the State Council of China.
It is the first government sponsored regulatory agency in the primary
industry sector being responsible for supervising and regulating
market competition in the electricity Industry in China. It also
issues licenses to the operators in the industry, monitors their
operations and holds them to account for violations of pricing and
competition rules.
Giving an overview of the Indian
power scenario, Mr Parbjot Singh Bhullar from J Sagar Associates
briefed the Chinese delegation on the new legislative framework
- the Electricity Act 2003 enacted by the Indian Parliament in June
2003. His presentation covered the snapshot of the Indian power
sector, emerging industry structure with the new legislation, strengths
of the Indian power system, issues and implementation challenges
and opportunities across the value chain. Mr Singh commented that
the new legislative framework had changed the canvas of Indian power
sector and had created high investment opportunities in generation,
captive generation, transmission and power trading. Freedom to buy
and sell electricity through open access is key provision of the
new legislation, he added.
In his welcome remarks, Mr Anil Sardana,
CEO, North Delhi Power Company Ltd hoped that the interaction between
India and China on Energy / Power will be the beginning of cooperation
between the two sides. The Indian industry representatives at the
meeting expressed keen interest in visiting China to understand
China’s power sector and exploring opportunities of cooperation
in the area of synergies in the power equipment manufacturing and
implementation of large hydel generation projects.
New Delhi
January 21, 2005
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