Cement, Energy and Environment

have agreed with us. Now we are fleshing that out in more detail. In three years, Rs 60,000-70,000 crore loss of discoms will be zero by 2019. Where will the money to repay banks come from? It will come over a longer period of time from within the state's resources. We don't know how. We don't decide what states do with their money. What lever will you use to implement the discoms' programme? What is the carrot, what is the stick? As far as the carrot goes, I'm not giving any cash subsidy or money like that. But in the last 17 months, not a single state that has come to meet me has gone back emptyhanded. Not in a single state review meeting have we passed on things to be resolved to be taken up in the future. I'm very confident. There will be a hard budget constraint. In future, you have to recognise that this is a state government responsibility and fund it. That's in the future. What will be done now? The basic issue is that these discoms don't have money. It will be a gradual process. We have discussed with states involved, and we've come to a solution for needs to be done for the past along with the RBI, banks, states and the Centre. All have together come to a solution. What are the objectives of the tariff policy that is being planned? There will be a major change in the renewable sector. We'll be bringing much tighter commitment both for renewable purchase obligation (for discoms), and we are introducing for generating companies an instal lation commitment. A company setting up a coal plant will also have to set up a renewable plant. There will be a greater thrust on competitive bidding in transmission, power purchase, at the same time giving states the ability to encourage capacity increases, by increasing existing capacities liberally. I don't want projects to take 10 years to set up. That adds to the cost. My own sense is more and more projects will come on existing sites. For wind, we want old capacity to be replaced by bigger, modern capacity. Plants should expand capacity at same location. An old plant has land, water, environment clearance. You can quickly set up additional capacity. We are also providing that for renewable energy there will be no interstate transmission charges. Wherever waste to energy - as part of waste-to-wealth that the prime minister has articulated - can be set up, must be set up and state will have to buy that power. We will integrate it with Swachh Bharat. Similarly, for municipal waste water, wherever it can be processed, we will encourage treatment. Processed water will be used by thermal plants, which will free up fresh water. Then microgrids. Why are people not setti ng up microgrids in remote areas? Because they are concerned what happens when the grid reaches there. We are providing; get the regulator to confirm your project economics and whenever grid reaches there, they will at depreciated value assess the rate at which power will be fed into it. Globally, new investment in renewable energy has exceeded fossil fuels. Will this happen in India? In terms of installed capacity, it will also happen in India. Already, we are not encouraging any fossil fuel projects. We are completing stalled ones. A few UMPPs will come up. In the next two– three years, I don't see the possibility of fossil fuel plants. I have enough capacity to double power generation in the next five-seven years. So now I'll be planning for seven years and beyond. Investment thrust will be totally skewed towards renewable. That's loud and clear. It also adds to energy security and environment protection. How will you discourage fossil fuels? Two things. One is, renewable provides you a tariff that remains constant for 25 years . That's a great advantage, because in fossil fuels, if you see the trajectory for the last 25 years , costs have shot up like anything. Rail freight, environmental costs, carbon capture will come into play. With transparency in renewables, the prices of are coming down drastically. Will there be no fresh initiatives for fossil fuels? For projects already in pipeline, I'm not going to waste national assets. I'll need it going forward. I'll focus on coal, gas, transmission, replacement of old plants. One of my first decisions I took as minister was to allow old and inefficient plants that pollute the maximum, to be replaced with 40