In a bid to discuss and highlight opportunities in the power sector in Vidarbha and provide a platform for players in this field,
Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA) and The Economic Times are jointly organising an energy summit in Nagpur in December end or early January. It has been named Abhijeet Group presents Energy Summit. The Abhijeet Group is setting up a power plant for supplying electricity in Mihan area. Consultancy firm KPMG is the knowledge partner at this two-day meet.
Vidarbha already has combined investments to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore in the pipeline for generation of 10,000 MW power. This includes projects by various players, including Mahagenco, NTPC and private players, in the planned or implementation stage. This provides an opportunity for investments to the tune of another Rs 20,000 crore in the field of transmission and allied services, said VIA's president Pravin Tapadia at a press conference on Monday. The agenda would include a whole gamut of issues like equipment manufacturing, carbon trading, power trading and environmental concerns. Issues related to neighbouring states like Chhattisgarh, which is also a part of Central India like Vidarbha, would be considered too, said Tapadia.
After the brain storming on various aspects, the knowledge partner KPMG would come up with a white paper at the end of the summit. Experts from various fields would speak at the meet, said Tapadia. The city-based Gupta Group is an associate partner for the event.
Attempts are being made to invite President Pratibha Patil to inaugurate he event. Other dignitaries to be invited include the Union power and coal ministers Sushilkumar Shinde and Sriprakash Jaiswal respectively, and minister for heavy industries Vilasrao Deshmukh. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), a major equipment maker for the power sector comes under this ministry, and officials from this PSU are expected for the event, said Tapadia.
Chairman of Abhijeet Group Manoj Jayaswal added that the firm would be commissioning the first unit of 61 MW for supplying power to Mihan by March 25, 2010. After this three other plants of similar capacity would begin at a gap of a month each. Mihan, under the present conditions, does not need more than 20 MW of power. Though this demand is lesser than expected, the rest can be sold to Mahagenco through open access. However, in any case power available through the plan would be a major incentive for prospective investors in Mihan. Jayaswal said that there are plans for an ultra mega power plant, with a capacity of 4,000 MW, for Vidarbha.
About other plans, Jayaswal said the group is coming up with power plants with a combined capacity of 5,000 MW spread across Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand, to be commissioned by 2014.