Bengal power minister Mrinal Banerjee in Calcutta on Friday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Feb. 25: Bengal will impose a surcharge of one paisa per unit on thermal power plants to create a fund that will be used to develop renewable energy projects.

?The government expects to mop up Rs 25 crore through the surcharge. All the funds will go towards developing the infrastructure for renewable energy projects,? state power minister Mrinal Banerjee said today.

He was speaking at the Renewable Energy Summit organised by Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The state government has discussed the matter with the Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission. ?We will soon send our proposal to the commission,? he added.

The decision to ask thermal units to contribute to the new energy initiative came along with the announcement of a bill being introduced to amend the law plugging power thefts. The move, which includes monetary penalties and prison terms for offenders, will be piloted in the forthcoming session of the Bengal Assembly.

?Electricity Act, 2003 only refers to penalties. But we would like to put the miscreants behind the bars to check the pilferage of power and reduce the transmission and distribution loss in the system,? Banerjee said. The West Bengal Electricity Board runs up transmission and distribution losses ? an euphemism for unpaid electricity ? as high as 30 per cent of its output.

The minister said invitations to private partners to join Bengal?s renewable energy ventures drew 23 proposals worth Rs 300 crore. Referring to the progress in this area, Banerjee said 40 biomass plants using rice husk with a capacity of 16-MW have already come up in the state.

The power department is now in the process of carrying out a survey in 100 villages of Darjeeling, where power from mini-hydel and bio-mass projects will be supplied. Other speakers at the Bengal Chamber event urged the government to bring about an integrated renewable policy that fixes the minimum renewable energy each state will require to set up, and how power boards will buy it.

Rakesh Bakshi, vice-president of the India Energy Forum and managing director of Vestas RRB India, cited wind power as a fast-growing source of renewable energy. India, he said, had a potential of producing 45,000 MW in this way. Of the 4,000 MW generated from renewable sources, 3,000 MW comes from wind energy.