R-Power seeks Jaiswal's help on coal issues-II: Demands specific coal diversion provision for UMPPs

Even as the Ministry of Coal (MoC) is apparently facing difficulties in finalizing the much-awaited new policy guidelines for diversion of surplus coal from captive coal blocks, the Group President of Reliance Power, A N Sethuraman, has called on the Union Coal Minister on the company`s demand for the proposed policy to include a provision specific to the UMPPs.

• According to the company, the MoC`s policy should clearly stipulate that in case of mismatch between the capacity of the captive coal blocks of the UMPPs, as per the approved mining plan and the requirement of the end use plant, the surplus coal, if any, can be used by any other power project of the developer of the UMPP, subject to the condition that the developer holds majority stake in both the power projects. 
• This demand from Reliance Power is in line with the decision of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) in August 2008 to permit the use of incremental coal by the developers of UMPPs to ensure optimum utilization of such coal blocks.
• Further, the EGoM, in its meeting in January 2010, okayed the inclusion of such a provision even in the allocation letter of coal blocks for UMPPs. 
• Besides, in a deviation from the prevailing policy, the Government has already allowed transfer of excess coal from Reliance Power`s Sasan UMPP to the company`s Chitrangi power plant.
• Importantly, the MoC is still in the process of finalizing various provisions of the draft guidelines, prepared in consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice, while July 2010 was the original deadline for the notification of these norms.