NEWS

Power regulator Central Electricity Regulatory Commission is in favour of a fixed capital cost for renewable energy projects on the lines of thermal power projects, and a draft regulation for the same is likely to be notified within a week. “The draft regulations for renewable energy projects such as small hydro, biomass, solar and wind units would be notified next week,” a senior CERC official said. “By June 15, 2009, CERC would receive the suggestions from its stakeholders like state power utilities and investors, and since these are renewable power projects, it would receive feedback from NGOs as well,” he said. The draft would then be vetted would then be vetted and the final norms would be announced around August 15 this year. As per the new norms, the electricity tariffs and incentives to the utilities would be determined by the capital cost of the project as is the case with thermal power projects, where the cost incurred to produce one megawatt power is fixed.