The power ministry has decided to amend Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003, to allow independent power producers to sell power to consumers of their choice through open access system, under which current intervention of states will be done away with.

This was announced by power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, while inaugurating a conference on open access organised by Assocham here on Tuesday. He said a consensus to this effect has emerged from all states and a policy decision to amend Section 11 has been taken on Monday.

Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003, has been the subject of a number of disputes before the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) and it was a long-felt demand of Independent Power Producers’ Association of India (IPPAI), seeking amendment to the relevant Section to restrict the power of the state governments in misusing it.

Under the Electricity Act, 2003, any industry can generate power for its own consumption without any problem and even sell excess power to others. The Act provides for non-discriminatory open access to the Central transmission utility’s transmission system by any licencee or generating company on payment of transmission charges. The Act was introduced to facilitate the growth of captive power plants in the country as it removes the major hurdles of permission and licence, thus saving both time and money for the industry.

Since electricity is under the concurrent list, states have a major role to play and were often coming in conflict with independent power producers’ right to sell off power to consumers of their choice through the open access system. ?We welcome the amendments of Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003, announced by the minister,? said Harry Dhaul, director general, Independent Power Producers’ Association of India (IPPAI), adding that parallel and concurrent amendments in Section 37 & 108 should also be looked upon and the requisite amendments should be done once and for all. IPPAI has submitted a memorandum on the matter to the power ministry. The minister further announced that the powergrid has so far received 178 applications from various customers, seeking open access amounting to about 1,42,000 mw in the next three-four years.

Most of the projects are proposed in the resource-rich northern and north-eastern regions.