No transparency in Karnataka's renewable energy projects: Centre

Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said in Parliament that the Karnataka government was not following transparent system in developing renewable energy projects.

Goyal was replying to K H Muniyappa (Congress) in the Lok Sabha on Thursday whether the Karnataka Power Minister (referring to D K Shivakumar) repeatedly requested the Union Minister to solve the coal problem in the state.  

"Minister of Power from Karnataka usually meets me only for renewable energy and to get guidelines fixed up so that more and more PPAs (Power Purchase Agreement) in terms of renewable energy could be signed by the state. Unfortunately, they were not being done through a transparent process and were done through the contractual arrangements. Therefore, probably, the regulator was creating a problem and thus he had to come to me," Goyal said.

Earlier, when Goyal was holding the Power, New and Renewable Energy portfolio, he had flagged the Karnataka government over its eagerness in setting up the new and renewable power projects through PPA instead of competitive bidding.

The Centre has been insisting the states to select private companies for developing renewable energy projects through competitive bidding as it ensured low tariff instead of PPA mode or contractual arrangement.