Well, hear about one more plan. The government has put together a hydropower development strategy that aims to take electricity to over 60 percent of the people in another 25 years, by when it hopes to generate over 15, 000 megawatts-a major leap from the roughly 600 megawatt (MW) of power currently generated in the country. The idea is to rope in private investors, who under the hydropower development policy 2001 can be licensed for producing electricity for domestic production as well as captive use and export. The policy also makes space for private investors to come in to run transmission and distribution systems.

Here's a recap of the policy: the power generation licenses for up to 35 years (domestic consumption) and 30 years (for export) can be obtained by private investors or joint ventures with government. The transmission and distribution licenses are to be good for 25 years, renewable for another 10 years. The royalty for different types of projects is based on the annual capacity per kilowatt and energy generated per KW hour (KWH). The capacity royalty for a 10-100 megawatt (MW) project would be Rs 150 per KW and the energy royalty 1.85% per KWH for the first 15 years and Rs 1,200 per KW and 10 percent per KWH thereafter. Projects built for captive use don't have to pay energy royalties but a flat Rs 1,500 per KW annual capacity royalty for the first 15 years and Rs 3,000 energy royalty per KWH. Captive use projects would be charged energy royalties applicable to projects above 100MW category in the event they sell excess power.

The policy has different royalty structures for export projects. Accordingly, run-of-river projects are to be required to pay an annual capacity royalty of Rs 400 per KW and an energy royalty of 7.5 percent per KWH in the first 15 years and Rs 1,800 and 12 percent thereafter. Likewise the charges for export-oriented storage projects is to be Rs 500 per KW as annual capacity royalty for the first 15 years and 10 percent per KWH as energy royalty; the charges thereafter are to be Rs 2,000 per KW and 15 percent.