• The government plans to warehouse stressed power projects totaling 25,000 megawatts under an asset management firm to protect the value of the assets and prevent their distress sale under the insolvency and bankruptcy code till demand for power picks up.

• State-run Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd had identified projects with a total debt of around Rs 1.8 trillion as part of the scheme, which is under government consideration and has been tentatively named Power Asset Revival through Warehousing and Rehabilitation, or ‘Pariwartan’.

• The ‘Pariwartan’ scheme is inspired by the Troubled Asset Relief Programme, or TARP, which was introduced in the US during the 2008 financial crisis.

• The proposed plan also aims to stem the rise in bad loans in the power sector.

• These stressed power projects will be housed under an asset management and rehabilitation company that will be owned by financial institutions. The plan is being driven by concerns that stressed projects have drawn bids for around Rs 1-2 crore per MW under the insolvency and bankruptcy code, a fraction of the Rs 5 crore per MW needed to build them.

• While the promoter’s equity will be reduced to facilitate a transfer of management control to financial institutions, the lenders will convert their debt into equity. The AMRC will manage the projects and may ask utilities such as NTPC to operate and maintain them. The AMRC will charge a fee and help complete projects that are stranded for lack of funds.