New Delhi, July 30 -- Should India have extended its transmission-charge waiver for renewable energy (RE) projects? This is perhaps the most debated current issue in our power sector. On one side stand RE developers, arguing that its non-extension will seriously affect investor sentiment in this important field, which in turn might impact the pace at which the country achieves its target of 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil-fuel capacity for electricity generation.

On the other side, a number of distribution companies (discoms) have been pleading that repeated extensions to the waiver of these charges for RE projects connected to the inter-state power grid has led to an overall increase in their transmission cost burden, on account of the...