Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?s stress on fixing India?s long-standing power sector woes was evident on Tuesday when power minister Sushilkumar Shinde held a day-long meeting with state power ministers in the capital.

Apart from top officials from power PSUs, Central Electricity Authority, Planning Commission and heavy industries ministry, minister of state for coal Sriprakash Jaiswal, environment and forest minister Jairam Ramesh and minister of state in the Prime Minister?s Office Prithviraj Chavan were also present?underlining the UPA?s plan to scale up capacities in the power sector with a holistic and concerted effort.

?When I took over as power minister again, I took a review meeting and found that somewhere, we are lagging behind. That?s why this meeting has been called?to deliver the desired results to the country and the Prime minister,? Shinde said after inaugurating the meeting.

The 11th Plan envisages expanding power generation capacity by 78,577 mw by March 2012. But in the Plan period?s first two years, capacity addition has been 15,036 mw. This is double the capacity added during the entire 10th Plan period, but as Planning Commission member BK Chaturvedi pointed out, that?s ?no consolation.?

In its second innings, the UPA has set itself a 100-day target of adding 5,653 mw of power capacity and over 14,500 mw by the end of 2009-10. ?Out of this, 2,319 mw has already been achieved and I am confident that we will not just achieve the target, but cross it by around 300 mw,? Shinde said.

Shinde urged state ministers to follow the Open Access norms in letter and spirit as power capacity addition in the private sector are dependent on it. ?Open Access allows generation stations to enter the market and sell power directly to high consumption customers. But some state regulators have fixed high surcharge fees on them, some have fixed the rates power producers can charge. Some independent power producers have told us that states have restricted sales to customers within the state,? Shinde lamented and asked states to review this.

Companies implementing power projects have been asked to place orders for necessary balance-of-plant (BoP) equipment by July 31, 2009. According to the Central Electricity Authority, companies placed orders for 80% of the required BoP equipment by the end of May 26, 2009.

For secured fuel supply, the government also asked electricity producers to sign fuel supply agreements with coal companies by the end of this month, and states to initiate steps to import coal by July end. It also asked the companies to form joint ventures by August 31 for timely development of coal blocks so that enough fossil fuel couldbe mined for use in thermal power generation.