Hyderabad:Transco & discoms want to continue with current tariff
Coming close on the heels of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s statement in the assembly that he has rejected the tariff hike proposal, the Telangana Transco and discoms has written to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) seeking an extension of the existing power tariff. The discoms submitted that since the financial year is coming to an end and the new tariff has not yet been fixed, orders from the ERC are needed to continue the existing tariff.Discoms require a fresh order allowing the continuation of power tariff that was fixed in 2016 without which the collection of power bills would not be tenable. “We requested the ERC to give orders to continue the present tariff for at least three months starting from April, 2017. Basing on the ERC decision, we would move forward.The tariff fixation issue is still with the state government,” said a senior official in the energy department. In another letter, the Transco and discoms also requested the ERC to give time till April 15 to them to submit the tariff proposals. Even to continue the current tariff, the power utilities have to submit the proposal and get them approved by the ERC. It may be recalled that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced on the floor of the assembly that he would not be game for a power tariff hike in the coming fiscal. Power experts pointed that there is nothing like `no tariff hike’ in the era of UDAY. The state government recently joined the Central scheme to divert 75 per cent of its `11,850 crore debt. “One of the condition to join the UDAY scheme is to agree for regular revision of power tariff based on the revenue and expenditure. After joining the UDAY scheme, no state can opt for a holiday for the tariff hike. If it does not want to increase the power tariff, it has to allot the revenue gap amount in the budget. In the present case, the state has allotted only `4,203 crore against a revenue gap of `8,500 crore,” explained an official. The Electricity Act of 2003 also made it mandatory to provide financial commitment by the state government if it does not want to raise the tariff. Meanwhile, ERC officials expedited the exercise to find out the actual revenue gap of the power utilities. They are burning the midnight oil to check the rationality in the figures submitted in the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) by the Transco and discoms. Adrian Colbert Womens Jersey
Energy boost for Uttar Pradesh: Solar power park, panels in the offing
The district is fast emerging as a solar energy hub. As per the clearance given by UPNEDA (Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Agency), different institutions of the district have been picked up for installation of solar panels. The institutions would even be selling the surplus solar energy to the northern grid. Along the lines of a project at Gujarat, an area of 100 hectare has been identified at Kosada village of Meja tehsil on which a solar park is being constructed to produce 50 Megawatt of energy. The work for installing solar panels has already begun. With most of the work done, the park would become functional by August, said Mohammad Shahid, an engineer of NEDA. Besides, there are several institutions which have either started installing solar panels or have executed the work order for fixing them on rooftops. The terrace of Vikas Bhawan has solar panels through which 70KW of electricity is being produced. Funds worth around Rs 75 lakh have been sanctioned for installing solar panels at Police Lines which would produce 130KW of electricity in the coming days. The office of commissioner Allahabad division would be installed with the system for producing 50KW of electricity. Adding to the overall production of energy through solar power, the rooftops of the building of Allahabad high court will also have solar panels which would produce 300KW of electricity. The building of Allahabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) would produce 110KW of electricity. IIIT-A would be installing a 300 KW rooftop plant connected to the power grid at the boys’ hostel. Nearly 940 solar panels and 10 invertors will be installed on the roof of Fifth Boys Hostel of the institute that would start generation of power from May. Anthony Miller Authentic Jersey
Dharmendra Pradhan seeks to allay protests over oilfields development in Tamilnadu
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan today met a delegation of villagers from Neduvasal in Tamilnadu protesting the recent award of oil and gas projects in the area. He was accompanied by commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for Road transport, Highways and Shipping, Pon Radhakrishnan. The villagers of Neduvasal have been up in arms since February over the recently approved oil and gas extraction contract given to Gem Laboratories under discovered small field bidding round. The protests started after the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) granted approval to projects to extract hydrocarbons in 31 contract areas across the country including two in the southern state. “Assured the delegation that the government will not unilaterally produce oil there without addressing their concerns in consultation with the TN government,” Pradhan said in a tweet after meeting the delegation from Neduvasal village. The minister also said in a separate statement in Parliament today the operator company has to obtain the requisite Mining Lease transferred from ONGC through the State Government for starting any petroleum activity. “After the grant or transfer of lease, to start any actual operations the operators will have to get requisite environmental clearances from State Government or Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change by following the prescribed process which may involve public hearing also,” he said in Lok Sabha. He informed that some local people and organizations have submitted representations and also filed two petitions in National Green Tribunal (NGT), Southern Zone, Chennai objecting the award of discovered small fields expressing apprehension regarding their possible environmental impact. The awarded projects will be taken up after following the requisite process including obtaining environmental clearances, Pradhan said. According to information available on the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) website, Gem Laboratory Pvt Ltd, a new entrant in the hydrocarbon sector, has been given in-principle approval to extract oil and gas from a contract area in the Neduvasal village containing 1,243 million standard cubic feet (MMSCF) of gas and 2,785 thousand barrels of oil. Also, Bharat Petro Resources Ltd (BPRL) has been given in-principle approval to extract oil and gas from Karaikal village in the same state. Adrian Amos Womens Jersey
Cabinet approves policy for extension of oilfields contracts to attract $5.4 billion investments
The Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today approved a new policy that allows extension of Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) governing exploration blocks awarded in the pre-New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) regime before 1999. “During the extension period, the contractors are expected to make an additional investment of more than $5.4 billion,” said an official statement, adding the recoverable reserves from these blocks are estimated to be more than 426 million barrel of oil equivalent. The decision comes as a major positive for Vedanta-owned Cairn India Ltd that operates India’s largest onland block at Barmer in Rajasthan. The 25-year lease period for the block — RJ-ON-90/1—expires in May 2020. The contract provides for a mutually-agreed 10-year extension if gas is being produced commercially. Commercial production of gas from the field commenced in 2013. Cairn India holds a 70 per cent stake in the Rajasthan block while ONGC owns 30 per cent. The PSC extension of the block has the potential to add another 250 million barrels of oil equivalent into its reserves. The company had earlier approached the Delhi High Court seeking its intervention for an early decision on the extension of the PSC. The court has asked the government to come up with a decision soon. Based on the new policy, the government’s share of Profit Petroleum – proceeds from the sale of hydrocarbon that the company shares with government — during the extended period of contract would be 10 per cent higher for these fields, thus bringing additional revenues to government. In addition, the policy brings out detailed guidelines regarding grant of extension, criteria for evaluation of request, time-frame for consideration of request and the duration of extension. “This policy will enable the contractors to extract not only the remaining reserves but also plan to extract additional reserves by implementing new technologies. In certain fields, additional recovery of hydrocarbons can be obtained through Enhanced Oil Recovery or Improved Oil Recovery (EOR/IOR) Projects and as such the production would extend beyond the current duration of PSC,” the official statement read. Oil and gas blocks allotted in the pre-NELP regime produced around 55 million barrel of oil and 965 million standard cubic meter (mmscm) of natural gas in the current financial year between April 2016 and February 2017. Mark Messier Jersey
Petroleum Ministry seeks integration road map from state-run oil companies
The oil ministry has directed state oil firms to prepare a roadmap for creating integrated firms. Oil secretary Kapil Dev Tripathi held a short meeting with the chairmen of state oil firms last week and asked them to submit their respective plans for integration within weeks, according to the people present in the meeting. Top executives of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and GAIL attended. In their plan, companies have to indicate who they will prefer to combine with and what kind of synergy that will bring, a person privy to the meeting said. The ministry has undertaken this exercise as a follow up to finance minister Arun Jaitley’s budget speech where he announced the government’s intent of restructuring state oil firms to create an integrated oil major. Last month, media reports, citing unnamed top officials, said the government planned to sell its entire equity stake in HPCL to ONGC, helping build a company that will have a presence across the industry value chain. The reports also said all other state oil firms will remain untouched. The idea of merging state oil firms is more than a decade old and was resurrected in the middle of last year when the Cabinet Secretariat referred the matter to the oil ministry. But it made little progress until the budget announcement, which has prompted consultation with oil companies. The idea of creating an integrated oil major germinated outside the oil ministry, and so it is entirely possible that the key decisions regarding this will be made outside, officials familiar with the matter said. Therefore, its not necessary that the plans state oil companies present will actually get adhered to, and the government may just direct them according to what it thinks is the best way to create an integrated player, the officials said. Jalin Marshall Jersey