Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Wednesday participated in the 2nd Global REINVEST Renewable Energy Investor’s Meet and Expo organized by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy at Greater Noida.Speaking in the Chief Ministerial Plenary session, Jai Ram Thakur welcomed the investors to invest in Himachal Pradesh in hydro power and solar energy sectors as the state was entrepreneur friendly and providing various facilities to encourage them in order to become partners in the growth of energy sector. He said that the state had immense hydel potential and the state government immediately after coming to power took a decision to include hydro power sector into tourism and added that hydro power reservoirs of state were being developed for hydro tourism.Enlisting the major entrepreneur friendly measures being offered by the state government, the Chief Minister said that the rates of upfront premium while allotting projects had been reduced from Rs. 20 lakh to mere one lakh per megawatt and land lease rates for hydro power projects were as less as one rupee per square metre. He said that the initial 12 years royalty of the state government from allotted projects other than those which were already generating power had been deferred and could be collected during next 28 years. He further said that 12 percent free power would be collected evenly during contract period in case of projects allotted in future.
The Chief Minister said that state had also addressed the main concern of power producers regarding selling of power and added that HP State Electricity Board would purchase power at a fixed rate from all hydro power projects up to 25 MW. He said that electricity rates which were fixed from the date of agreement implementation would now be fixed from commercial operation date.He said that the Himachal government had been raising the issue of including all hydro power projects into the category of renewable energy so that they could also avail the benefits being given to renewable energy projects as at present hydro power projects up to 25 MW capacity were only being included under this category. He added that hydro power projects generate green energy which was eco friendly, if this demand was fulfilled then more investors would be attracted to the state and economy would be strengthened further.
Jai Ram Thakur said that the state government was keen about promoting solar power projects also in the state as one thousand MW solar park had been already identified in Spiti area and various projects with capacity of 200 MW were also proposed for near future. He said that solar energy policy had also been framed and keeping in view, the fragile ecology of the hill state, the government was promoting only green and clean energy and at present 90 percent of the utilized energy was clean. He added that state had also banned setting up of thermal power houses.He informed that the state had a total hydro power tapping potential of 27000 MW which was one fourth of the entire country and 10547 MW had been already tapped through 151 projects. In addition to this, 63 projects with a capacity of 2395 MW were under construction, 770 projects with a capacity of 8000 MW had been allocated whereas small and big projects worth 2100 MW capacity would be allocated soon.Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated the Himachal Pavilion set by the Directorate of Energy HP Government in the India Expo Mart.Power Minister Anil Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Dr. Shrikant Baldi, Principal Secretary Prabodh Saxena accompanied the Chief Minister during the event.