24×7 power for all, a humongous but achievable feat: PwC
Unrealistic power demand forecasting, lack of information on existing power assets, inadequate planning without systematic system studies, delays in approvals and competencies of electricity utility staff are some of the roadblocks that would heavily come in the way of government’s aim to provide power 24×7, a joint study by PwC and CII pointed out. The study, released on Saturday, says achieving the objective of ‘Round- the-clock power supply’ programme will not be an easy task. But improved fuel availability scenario, achieving target capacity additions well within time or even earlier, increasing investments, and aggressive bids for renewable energy projects are some of the encouraging trends that indicate that India can achieve this humongous feat in the near future. Nevertheless, concerns related to fund availability due to poor financial condition of utilities, lack of standard specifications and utility centric tender conditions have been haunting the sector. Other key concerns are usage of non-standard bid documents, delay in bid process management, lack of programme monitoring practices and tools, absence of field quality plan and lack of implementation. On the supervision front, issues pertaining to land acquisition and right of way remains, while performance of vendors and suppliers needs to be monitored. At present the Indian power sector is facing key challenges in the form of lower output from generation units and higher losses. As of May 2016, the national average plant capacity utilisation was 62.24%, which has significant scope for improvement. According to PwC, 24×7 power for all would require generation companies to develop an integrated policy at the company level to ensure coal security in the medium and long term, and at the same time minimise its landed cost. Owners of captive coal blocks also need to expedite development and operations of projects to ensure that they are on schedule. This would require setting up of effective project management systems and appointment of capable mine developer & operator for the optimum utilisation of resources. Additionally, inter-regional transmission network needs to be strengthened to tackle persisting corridor bottleneck and congestion issues. Adoption of efficient technologies and stringent qualification is one of the prerequisites to facilitate the participation of competent players. A realistic policy for the payment of reasonable compensation to ease out the problems of right of way for transmission companies will help in avoiding cost and time overruns of transmission projects. IT and new technologies implementation systems such as smart grid projects, internet of things will significantly improve the operational efficiency of the power system. PWC claims that effective programme management of government schemes like DDUGJY, IPDS and UDAY will be key to successful implementation of projects and achievement of the ‘Power for All’ programme objective. Institutional strengthening and capacity building of utilities shall be critical in order to reap the benefits of sector reform. Programme closure assessment will be helpful in devising a better plan for any future projects. Jim Otto Womens Jersey
Bhogapuram airport unviable, says Air Travellers Association
Air Travellers Association (India) president D Varada Reddy, in a release on Friday, said that three qualified bidders for the Bhogapuram International Airport Limited (BIAL) – GVK, GMR and Airports Authority of India- categorically stated that the Bhogapuram airport was not viable unless the passenger loads touched 2.5 million per annum. A total of eight bidders participated in the bid for the development of infrastructure and greenfield international airport. Of the total, three bidders were qualified. The AAI could not also participate for the non-viability factor. ATA(I) has repeatedly been stating that Bhogapuram Greenfield Airport is neither feasible nor viable and the statements of the bidders reiterate ATA(I)’s belief, Varada Reddy said. Justin Smoak Jersey
Ramp to airport not to be demolished
The government has decided not to demolish the 430-metre ramp that was constructed by the State without nod from the NHAI to provide connectivity from the NH 66 Kazhakuttam-Karode bypass to the terminal II of the international airport. The decision is based on a report submitted by the Chennai-based transport planner N.S. Sreenivasan, who was roped in to offer suggestions to provide hassle-free connectivity to the airport from the bypass, which is being widened. His expertise was sought as the NHAI and the AAI failed to arrive at a consensus on the design for connectivity. A 8.5-metre wide flyover has been proposed by Dr. Sreenivasan along the Enchakkal-Chakka corridor for the movement of the vehicles along the bypass. Vehicles coming to the airport via the carriageway will turn from beneath the flyover to enter the ramp that will be suitably modified. The exit will be through the other ramp to the carriageway. There will be service roads. The report was presented by Dr. Sreenivasan at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary S. M. Vijayanand on Friday. While the Airport Director, George G. Tharakan favoured the proposal, the NHAI Project Director R. Venkatkrishnan pointed out that it cannot be made part of the existing EPC contract as over Rs. 150 crore would be needed for the flyover. Moreover, it was pointed out that the design of the flyover would need the clearance of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and additional funds would have to be managed. Adarius Glanton Womens Jersey
Stepping on the gas
Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s decision to move towards market pricing for natural gas in difficult areas in the deep seas—or ones where the temperatures or pressures are very high—appears to be paying off after several months. While exploration firms looked a bit hesitant to make a commitment to invest given the uncertain oil price scenario, with costs of exploration/drilling equipment also falling significantly, the investment outlook looks much brighter today—if oil/gas prices start rising over the next year or two, those investing now will stand to reap bigger gains. Briefing the media after a CII presentation to Pradhan, BP India head Sashi Mukundan estimated that the gas exploration companies would end up investing anywhere between Rs. 2500-3000 billion over the next 4-5 years based on the likely existing reserves—a ballpark investment of around $3-4 billion is required for every 1 tcf and estimates are India has around 10-15 tcf of discovered gas between ONGC, RIL-BP, GSPC and Cairn India. Based on that, CII estimates this will generate around Rs. 2500 billion of revenues for the government—from royalty, profit shares and taxes on corporate profits—and, more important, it will result in import savings of around R10 lakh crore. Equally important, from the point of view of global warming, it will also increase the share of natural gas in India’s energy mix significantly. Apart from the obvious gains to the economy as gas-based power and fertiliser plants start functioning at higher capacity, the more important lesson for the government is the implications of messing with free-market pricing. Though the gas exploration policy clearly specifies that free-market pricing will be allowed, this was given the go-by and though the UPA government tried to make amends towards the end of its tenure, the NDA refused to implement the recommendations of the Rangarajan committee on this. While enough analysts pointed out that it was uneconomic to extract gas at the current prices, even the state-owned ONGC’s break-even estimates for its deep-water wells was significantly higher than the price the government had fixed—the government, however, refused to relent, and a valuable two years were lost. While the government appears to have learned its lesson the hard way—last year, RIL decided to start concentrating on Mexico for exploration—in the gas sector, what is worrying is that it doesn’t seem to be applying the same learning to other sectors like pharmaceuticals or, more recently, genetically modified seeds. P. J. Williams Authentic Jersey
TSRTC MoU with HPCL for retail outlets
In a bid to augment its non-traffic revenues, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has leased out 52 of its unused spaces across the State for commercial business by way of setting up retail fuel outlets on rental basis to the Hindusthan Petroleum Corporation for a duration of 30 years. A memorandum to this effect was signed by officials of both organisations at the corporate office on Saturday. The entire cost of construction for the retail outlets would be borne by Hindusthan Petroleum and it was estimated that the TSRTC would get a revenue of about Rs. 100 million annually towards lease rentals and sale of fuel. Among those present while the MoU was signed were TSRTC MD G.V. Ramana Rao and Hindusthan Petroleum’s General Manager-Retail (South Central Zone) G.S.V. Prasad. Interestingly, all the 52 outlets would be operated by the TSRTC on its own by appointing service providers who would handle the logistics of having the required personnel on outsourcing. The service providers would be appointed through open tenders on competitive bidding, a press release said. Charlie Blackmon Authentic Jersey
LNG imports drop in July on lower consumption and increased local production
India’s import of liquefiednatural gas (LNG) shrunk for the first time this year in July, ending a blistering growth trajectory since January, as consumption crawled and local gas production expanded. The country imported 1960 million metric standard cubic meters (mmscm) of LNG in July, 4 per cent less than the 2037 mmscm of gas it imported in July 2015, according to thePetroleum Planning and Analysis Cell(PPAC), an oil ministry’s arm. This is a sharp fall from 62 per cent growth in February, and above 40 per cent growth each in March, April, and May. The average LNG import growth between January and July was about 30 per cent. The 4 per cent rise in local natural gas output from 2511 mmscm to 2621 mmscm partly covered the drop in gas imports, while nearly stagnant natural gas consumption at 4.58 billion cubic meters in July diminished needs for additional gas procurement. Between April and July this year, the local gas consumption has expanded 6.5 per cent while LNG import has risen 22 per cent. India has been hoping to use more gas, one of the cleanest conventional fuels, in its factories, vehicles, and homes as international pressure mounts to lower carbon footprint and as a global collapse in prices makes it more affordable. The spot LNG prices are hovering between $5 and $6 per unit after having fallen about three-fourths since the beginning of 2014. A glut in the market is expected to keep prices lower until 2020. India’s state-run Petronet LNGBSE 5.22 % reworked a long-term LNG import deal with Qatarlate last year, which allowed prices to imitate spot more closely, helping local consumers buy more of Qatar’s gas at cheaper rates. This resulted in a sharp rise in LNG imports in the early months of this year. But a slide in import in July shows, the appetite for natural gas in India may be limited as the industry can easily find cheaper competing fuels. Many power producers are averse to using natural gas much, as they aren’t able to find customers for the expensive electricity generated by natural gas. The LNG import had started tapering in June with just 14 per cent growth. Gareon Conley Womens Jersey
Jobs in entrepreneurial companies not for life: Tom Albanese
With three CEOs quitting since it took over oil producer Cairn India, mining mogul Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd has defended the high turnover, saying jobs in entrepreneurial companies are not for life and is based on what people can do for the company in future. Canadian oil industry veteran Mayank M Ashar, 61, in May quit as CEO of Cairn India, the third to resign since the company was taken over by Vedanta four-and-a-half-years ago. “Within the global oil and gas industry, it is not unusual to have a higher level of turnover, particularly among expats. That is the nature of industry and expats by their nature have shorter durations than employees and they might go for reasons that are unrelated to business, personal or any other reason,” Vedanta CEO Tom Albanese told PTI here. The debt-laden Vedanta is seeking to merge cash-rich Cairn in an all-share transaction before end of March 31, 2017. Asked about resignations of Rahul Dhir, then P Elango and now Mayank Ashar, he said, “Cairn or any entrepreneurial oil and gas company will always have more people in mobility than a state-owned oil company.” He added: “These are not jobs for life. If you are working for an entrepreneurial oil and gas company, your position in the company is not based on what you did in the past, but what you will do for us in future (and) what you are doing now. That is the nature of an entrepreneurial company.” Ashar was appointed CEO of Cairn India after P Elango, who was promoted in-house, in a sudden move quit the company in May 2014. Like Ashar, Elango, who was named interim chief executive in August 2012 when the firm’s face Rahul Dhir resigned, too had cited “personal reasons” for the decision to step down. Albanese said it was in the best interest of Cairn, which owns and operates the country’s biggest onland oil field in Rajasthan, to develop Indian managers with global skills and use expats only to fill in specialised gaps that are not reciprocated locally. “It is my personal objective that we should be evolving towards a business that is predominately Indian specialised talent,” he said. “I respected Mayank, good friend of mine, for choosing to turn back to Canada (after quitting Cairn).” Ashar after quitting has joined Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries as advisor-refinery and marketing business. “I think Cairn should keep its focus on expecting every single person to be delivering 1,000 per cent… I can guarantee that entrepreneurial oil and gas companies outside India are seeing exactly the same kind of phenomenon,” he said. Elango’s exit in 2014 had completed the exodus of the entire top management of Cairn India since billionaire Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta in 2010 announced buying a majority stake in the firm from Scottish explorer Cairn Energy Plc. Rick Bott, who was Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Cairn India, quit the firm on June 15, 2011, while its Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Indrajit Banerjee resigned with effect from August 23, 2011. David Ginger, Cairn India’s Director of Exploration and New Ventures, quit the firm shortly thereafter and Dhir put in his papers after the Cairn-Vedanta deal was completed. Company’s Director, Commercial and New Business Ajay Gupta quit the firm in January 2013. Vedanta completed the USD 8.67 billion acquisition of Cairn India in December 2011. Billy Smith Jersey
State-run Tripura power plant faces losses as ONGC delays gas supply
A state-owned company’s third largest gas-based power plant near here, mandated to provide 100 MW of electricity to Bangladesh, has been incurring losses due to delays in supply of gas by another public sector undertaking. The Rs 10.0757 billion power project has been commissioned by the state-run North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (Neepco) at Monarchak, 70 km south of Tripura’s capital Agartala, with gas supplies linked to the Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC). According to Neepco General Manager Samar Ranjan Biswas, in view of the delayed commercial generation of power from the environment-friendly project, the corporation has been incurring a loss of Rs 132 million every month. “ONGC’s repeated dilly-dallying on supplying gas has delayed the commercial generation of electricity from this power project and resulted in huge losses,” Biswas told IANS. Another senior Neepco official said that with Bangladesh keen to source more power from India, and the Tripura and central governments being willing, the company is prepared to supply 100 MW of power to the neighbouring country. “Conceived in 2000 with an installed capacity of 500 MW, the power plant’s capacity was reduced to 280 MW in 2003-04 after ONGC reduced its gas allocation by half. By May 2004, Neepco had established all infrastructure for the 280 MW plant,” Biswas said. “The ONGC further cut the gas allocation in 2008, forcing Neepco to scale down the installed capacity of the project to 101 MW,” said Biswas, who heads the project. “The commercial generation of electricity of this combined cycle power plant (65.42 MW gas turbine and 36.25 MW steam turbine) would start as and when the ONGC starts supplying gas,” he said. Assigning no reasons for the delay, ONGC Executive Director S.C. Soni said they would be able to supply 0.50 million standard cubic metres per day gas to the Neepco project by December this year or January next year. The ONGC has also commissioned its first commercial power project in India — 726 MW gas-based combined cycle power project — located in southern Tripura’s Palatana (60 km south of Agartala) and run by the ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC). “Electricity is being supplied to seven of the eight northeastern states from the Palatana power project. Also, 100 MW of power is being supplied to Bangladesh since March,” Soni said, adding that supplying of gas to Palatana is a priority to ONGC as the project is providing power to Bangladesh as per India’s commitment. Designed by the US-based General Electric, the turbines are being supplied by Bharat Heavy Electric for the Neepco power plant which would generate 65.42 MW electricity through gas turbines and 36.25 MW through steam turbines. Headquartered in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong, Neepco — a ‘mini ratna’ company — has also set up a 5 MW solar power plant on 25 acres of land within the 101 MW Monarchak power plant complex. The Neepco General Manager said the 5 MW plant, set up at a cost of Rs 430 million, is the biggest solar power project in Northeast India which started generation in February last year. “Neepco has signed an agreement with the Solar Energy Corporation of India for the development of 1,000 MW solar power projects in India in the next few years,” he added. ONGC and Neepco power projects in Tripura would ease the electricity shortages of seven of the eight Northeastern states — Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The Bangladesh government helped to carry over-dimensional and large-sized turbines and machines from various parts of India to mountainous Tripura using its waterways and roads, thus saving time and cost. Jean-Sebastien Giguere Authentic Jersey
Gail India to partner US firm for new gas power generation technology
Gail India to sign an agreement with Bloom Energy to introduce fuel cell technology, which will be cost-effective for power generation in the long term. New Delhi: State-owned Gail (India) Ltd said on Saturday it will tie up with California-based closely-held firm Bloom Energy Corp. on Monday to pursue natural gas-based fuel cell power generation, a new technology. Gail said an agreement will be signed with the company in the presence of oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Gail chairman and managing director B.C. Tripathi and Bloom Energy chief executive K.R. Sridhar. “This will explore long-term natural gas market potential for power generation.” Gail said without giving further details, which are expected on Monday. An invitation from Bloom Energy said its fuel cell technology could help the country move away from relying on fixed power infrastructure which is prohibitively capital intensive to “capital light and soft” infrastructure. Bloom Energy claims its technology converts fuel into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process, which can use a variety of fuels, including biogas. Unlike traditional power generation, Bloom uses virtually no water and produces no unhealthy emissions, it stated. Gail, which is in the field of gas marketing and transportation, will benefit from a deeper gas market in the country. At present, natural gas accounts for only about 6.5% of India’s primary energy mix dominated by coal and crude oil. The government is pursuing private investments into the entire value chain of gas, which is generating interest from firms such as Bloom Energy. However, availability of gas is limited in the country and freight cost and currency exchange rate movements add to uncertainty in relying on liquefied natural gas imported from gas surplus countries. Sergei Bobrovsky Womens Jersey