Electricity generation has been made a non-licensed activity and the techno-economic clearance from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has been done away with for any power plant, except for hydro-electric power stations above a certain amount of capital investment. This has been provided in section 7 and 8 of the Electricity Act 2003. The generators can sell electricity to any licensees or where allowed by the state regulatory commissions, to consumers directly. The provision of direct sale of electricity by the generators, when and where allowed, would promote more IPP participation in the power generation, as these consumers are more creditworthy and bankable compared to many SEB’s. However the act provides for imposition of a surcharge by the regulatory body to compensate for some loss in cross-subsidy revenue to the SEB’s due to this direct sale of electricity by generators to the consumers.