Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Maha Discom proposed to mitigate the power shortage in Pune by harnessing the Diesel based Captive Power Plants (CPP) available with the industries in Pune. CII proposed to recover the high cost of power generation by CPPs from Pune consumers. This proposal, in effect, envisaged power purchase at a rate more than 11 Rs/unit. MERC held two public hearing at Pune on this issue (dt 12 December 2005 and 15 April 2006) and also released a draft order for public comments. Prayas participated in the public hearings and critically commented on the proposal. Apart from the high cost of power, Prayas’s comments mainly focus on the fundamental concerns in this approach and some critical gaps in the planning and regulatory process in the state.