India more than capable of achieving 100 Smart City goal: Hany Fam
India is more than capable of achieving its 100 Smart City goal but needs a “collaborative” and focussed approach to complete the ambitious plan, a top executive of a leading global Financial services company has said. “With its ambitious plan, it is more crucial than ever for India to stay realistic and focused. (For) Smart city planning and development, India needs a collaborative approach of shared technology, expertise, learning and governance. That is what India needs to keep focused on to meet their 100 Smart City goal,” said Hany Fam, executive vice president, Enterprise Partnerships, Mastercard. He noted that India was working towards leveraging the smart city experience and technology available across the globe to drive the transformation it needs. Fam, however, cautioned that it was also important not to overlook the current problems plaguing society while they ambitiously work on developing India’s future. “In order to unlock cities’ full potential, they (India) need to remain focused on simultaneously developing basic services and infrastructure,” Fam said. India needs to keep its smart city vision in mind while it addresses issues such as sanitation and transport, in order to achieve its 100 Smart City goal. “It needs time, patience and work, but with a solid plan, governance and focus, India is more than capable of achieving it,” he stressed. The major concern for India is tackling the implications of urbanisation, with people moving from countryside to cities in unprecedented numbers, Fam said. “This is a trend that has global impact and is not specific to developing economies. So now, more than ever, there is a need to come up with technology that can be applied to the challenges cities face in order to make cities smarter, enabling business growth and quality of life,” he advised. A collaborative approach is needed with regards to shared technology, expertise and learning in order to recognise the potential in future cities and deliver truly impactful transformation, Fam said. “The Indian government has ambitious plans and recently announced 20 priority cities that will be the focus for the first phase of its smart city investment,” he said. “By taking into account the experiences citizens have with the city they live in, and applying technology to transform these interactions, we (Mastercard) can help to develop cities that are dynamic, liveable and sustainable,” he said. Mastercard is already working with 50 cities from all over the globe. In September last year, the company launched the Urbanomics Mobility Project, a new data analysis platform to fuel smarter, more inclusive cities. Jonathan Jones Jersey
Greka Drilling bolstered by contract in India
Greka Drilling Ltd (LON:GDL) expects to drill as many wells in India as China this year as activity slowed in the first half. The unconventional oil and gas drilling specialist saw the number of metres drilled reduce by 52% as oil prices struggled, with 12,458m drilled compared to 26,367m a year ago. India provided the bulk of this with seven wells drilled as part of a contract with Indian giant Essar. Greka hopes to complete 30 wells over the remainder of 2016 by two rigs as part of the Essar contract. Talks are also at an advanced stage with other oil and gas companies for work in the central part of India said chairman and chief executive Randeep Grewal. Previously, most of Greka’s contracts had been in China for former parent Green Dragon Gas, but only two wells were drilled in the first half though Green Dragon has indicated an eight well programme will start in the autumn. Other drilling expected to start this year in China for other customers includes six wells in November 2016 and six directional wells for tight gas. Grewal added: “We had previously advised the market that we expected this year to be challenging while the oil & gas operators realign their portfolios to the new oil price environment. “During this period we continued to take steps to reduce costs, improve our drilling efficiency and diversify our services and customer base. “In India we won a new contract from Essar Oil to provide drilling for vertical and directional wells on a day-rate basis. “In China it is anticipated that a number of larger E&P companies, including Green Dragon Gas, will start their programmes for 2016 in H2.” Buster Posey Womens Jersey
GAIL seeks to defer Gazprom LNG contract
GAIL India Ltd is seeking to defer a 20-year contract to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Gazprom PJSC until the Russian company’s Shtokman project begins production, officials at the South Asian country’s biggest gas transporter said. New Delhi-based GAIL signed a contract in 2012 to buy 2.5 million tons a year of LNG from Gazprom starting in 2018 and 2019. The Russian exporter was to supply LNG from the Shtokman project under the contract, according to GAIL’s website. Now that the Arctic project is on hold, Gazprom has offered to supply LNG from other sources, said the GAIL officials, who asked not to be identified citing company policy. The Indian company is insisting on supplies from Shtokman and has said it will consider lifting LNG from other sources at a renegotiated price that is closer to spot-market rates, the officials said. Gazprom didn’t immediately comment. GAIL is struggling to find buyers for its gas amid an abundance of cheap alternative power generation supplies, including coal. The price of spot LNG to Asia during the past year has fallen 28% amid a global glut. Reuters earlier reported GAIL was seeking to delay the gas purchase deal with Gazprom. Rocky Bleier Jersey
India, US discover large deposits of natural gas in Bay of Bengal
Natural gas hydrate deposits were found in the Krishna-Godavari Basin in the Bay of Bengal by a joint expedition team, including the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Indian government and Japanese scientists, said the USGS on Tuesday. The discovery has the potential to help India, which currently imports a major chunk of its fuel, in fulfilling its energy needs. This was the second such expedition undertaken by the USGS and the government of India. The gas hydrates found by the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 are producible unlike the discovery during the first expedition. For natural gas to be “producible with existing technologies,” it has to occur in sand reservoirs, the US government agency said. “Advances like the Bay of Bengal discovery will help unlock the global energy resource potential of gas hydrates as well help define the technology needed to safely produce them,” said Walter Guidroz, USGS Energy Resources Program coordinator. The gas hydrate deposits, located in the Krishna-Godavari Basin, were found within coarse-grained sand-rich depositional systems. The discovery can help India diminish its dependence on coal and petroleum, eventually affecting the India’s carbon footprint. The team was led by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation on behalf of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, in cooperation with the USGS, the Japanese Drilling Company and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. The team will now test if the production of the naturally occurring fuel is “practical and economic.” “The results from this expedition mark a critical step forward to understanding the energy resource potential of gas hydrates,” said USGS Senior Scientist Tim Collett, who participated in the expedition. “The discovery of what we believe to be several of the largest and most concentrated gas hydrate accumulations yet found in the world will yield the geologic and engineering data needed to better understand the geologic controls on the occurrence of gas hydrate in nature and to assess the technologies needed to safely produce gas hydrates.” Jack Lambert Womens Jersey
Not liable to repay Rs 6,000 crore debt due to breach of terms: Kingfisher Airlines
The Kingfisher Airlines Limited, a holding company of Vijay Mallya, said it is not liable to repay over Rs 6,000 crore debt to the consortium of banks as the lenders have breached terms and conditions of Master Debt Restructuring Agreement between both parties, which caused needless damages to the firm’s business. Resuming the hearing on the Original Application filed by bankers, seeking recovery of over Rs 6,000 crore from Mallya and his companies, KFA Counsel pleaded that the Debt Recovery Tribunal should reject the plea as the lenders have breached MDRA terms and conditions. Making submissions before DRT Presiding Officer C R Benakanahalli, KFA Counsel submitted that since section 54 of MDRA was breached by lenders, the company is not liable to pay the loans for damages caused by them. According to MDRA terms and conditions, KFA was to get the working capital fund from the lenders to continue their airline business, which the lenders violated and eventually the company faced further financial problems. “The lenders breached the agreement by not providing working capital fund to KFA, and due to which the company faced financial difficulties. Rafael Bush Womens Jersey
Uranium Imports: A critical dose to step up generation
By the end of this calendar year, nearly 3,000 metric tonnes (MT) of nuclear fuel is likely to be shipped into India from three countries — the Russian Federation, Canada and the Republic of Kazakhstan. The uranium shipments expected in 2016 is a record for a single year and would, in quantitative terms, amount to nearly 53 per cent of total nuclear fuel imported into India since the country’s access to the global nuclear fuel market opened up in 2008. Till now, about 5,559 MT has come into the country from these three nations, alongside France, while 2,937 MT is the anticipated supplies of nuclear fuel in the form of natural uranium ore concentrate and natural uranium oxide pellets during calendar year 2016. In India, there are currently 21 reactors with an installed capacity of 5,780 MWe (mega watt electrical), of which, eight reactors with aggregate capacity of 2,400 MWe are fuelled by indigenous uranium while the remaining 13 with a capacity of 3,380 MWe are under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards and use imported uranium. The second unit of the Kudankulam nuclear project (1,000 MWe Unit-2) has also attained first criticality (start of controlled self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction in the reactor for the first time) on July 10, 2016, which also uses imported fuel. A steady supply of uranium is good news for the country’s nuclear power sector, something that is expected to push up the performance of Indian nuclear power plants, as well as of the several fuel cycle facilities. The capacity factor — or operational efficiency — of the 21 nuclear power reactors currently running in the country was recorded at 73 per cent in the first three months of the current fiscal (April-June 2016). This includes the operational data for the first unit of the Kudankulam power project. An improvement in gross nuclear generation in the coming months could be powered by a combination of two factors: international cooperation leading to augmentation of fuel supplies to 13 reactors that qualify for imported fuel, and a commensurate improvement in domestic fuel supplies for the other eight. Under the “separation plan” announced by the government in March 2006, negotiated after the July 2005 nuclear deal with the US, India was required to bring 14 reactors under IAEA Safeguards in a phased manner. Thirteen of these reactors — including RAPS 2 to 6 at Rawatbhata, Rajasthan, KAPS 1 and 2 at Kakrapar, Gujarat, NAPS 1 and 2 at Narora, Uttar Pradesh, TAPS 1 and 2 at Tarapur, Maharashtra, Kudankulam 1 in Tamil Nadu — are already under IAEA safeguards, and eligible to run on imported fuel. They are now operating at close to full capacity, officials of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), which runs the country’s nuclear power plants, said. The other reactors — KGS 1 to 4 at Kaiga, Karnataka, MAPS 1 and 2 at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, and TAPS 3 and 4 at Tarapur, Maharashtra — continue to use uranium sourced within the country. Official sources said that the Department of Atomic Energy reckons the annual fuel need for operating the indigenous pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) at 85 per cent capacity is about 45 tonnes of uranium dioxide for the older 220 MWe units, 100 tonnes for the 540 MWe units and 125 tonnes for the new 700 MWe units. By contrast, the need of low enriched uranium for operating imported light water reactors (LWRs) at 85 per cent capacity factor are six tonnes for the older 160 MWe Tarapur units and 27 tonnes for 1,000 MWe units such as the twin Russian-built VVER-1000 reactor units at Kudankulam. The total installed capacity is scheduled to go up to 9,980 MWe at the end of the current five-year plan period (March 2017), as seven new reactors are commissioned. These include the imported LWRs of Russian design, four indigenous PHWRs, and one indigenous prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR). NPCIL had planned to start work on 16 new reactors with a total capacity of 16,100 MWe during the Twelfth Plan (2012-17). These included eight indigenous PHWRs of 700 MWe each with a total capacity of 5,600 MWe and eight LWRs based on international cooperation — with Russia, France and the US — totaling to a capacity of 10,500 MWe. JSC TVEL Corporation, Russia Date of Contract: 11.02.2009 Total Quantity to be procured: 2000 MT of Natural Uranium Oxide Pellets. Total Quantity received: 1813 MT Anticipated delivery in 2016: 187 MT Status: The fuel is being procured through the Annual Supplements to the Contract, which concludes with the import of 187 MT of Pellets. Date of Contract: 11.02.2009 Quantity to be procured: 58 MT of Enriched Uranium Oxide Pellets.. Total Quantity received: 58.30 MT Anticipated delivery in 2016: Nil Status: The Contract concluded with one-time supply of the fuel during 2009. Date of Contract: 03.03.2015 Quantity to be procured: 42 MT of Enriched Uranium Oxide Pellets. Total Quantity received: 42.15 MT Anticipated delivery in 2016: Nil Status: The Contract concluded with one-time supply of the fuel during 2015 JSC NAC KazatomProm, Kazakhstan Date of Contract: 12.11.2009 Quantity to be procured: 2100 MT of Natural Uranium Ore Concentrate. Total Quantity received: 2095.9 MT Anticipated delivery in 2016:Nil Status: The Contract concluded during 2014. Date of Contract: 08.07.2015 Quantity to be procured: The Contract permits procurement of a minimum of 3750 MT and maximum 7000 MT of Natural Uranium Ore Concentrate. Total Quantity received: 999.807 MT Anticipated delivery in 2016:1500 MT Status: The material is to be procured during 2015–2019. AREVA, France Date of Contract:17.12.2008 Total Quantity to be procured:300 MT of Natural Uranium Ore Concentrate. Total Quantity received: 299.88 MT Anticipated delivery in 2016: Nil Status: The contract with Areva concluded with a one-time supply of the fuel during 2009. Cameco, Canada Date of Contract: 15.04.2015 Total Quantity to be procured: The Contract permits procurement of a minimum of 2750 MT and maximum 5500 MT of Natural Uranium Ore Concentrate Total Quantity received: 250.74 MT Anticipated
Power tariff: Regulatory panel’s public hearing in Thiruvananthapuram today
ELECTRICITY consumers can air their views on the Kerala State Regulatory Commission’s suo motu decision to determine power tariff in the state on Wednesday. The Commission, which took the step after the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) failed to submit tariff proposals for 2016-17, will hold a public hearing at its offices at Vellayambalam at 11 am. The Commission has uploaded details regarding its decision on its website www.erckerala.org. As per the Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) and Expected Revenue from Charges (ERC) statements prepared by the Commission, the KSEB will have a revenue surplus of Rs 575.74 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 600.39 crore in 2017-18. Steps would be taken to fix the consumer category-wise tariffs after the hearing. Every year, the KSEB prepares and submits the ARR&ERC and tariff proposals before the Commission. The latter then takes a decision on it after public hearings. But new provisions require the KSEB to submit tariff proposals in a Multi Year Tariff (MYT) format (Under it, tariff proposals for three fiscals have to be submitted at one go). This has led to a row between the panel and the KSEB. Tariff was last hiked in 2014. Curtis McKenzie Womens Jersey
Delhi: Discoms to pay 10 times fine ‘falsely’ imposed on consumer for power theft
The discoms will have to compensate a consumer nearly 10 times the fine they “falsely” impose on him for power theft, the city’s power department has said. Noting a “delay”, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked the power department on Tuesday to expedite the implementation of the notification which was earlier issued to Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC). According to the notification, DERC will depute senior officials to give requisite permissions required to carry out inspections of discoms wherever cases of power theft and misuse are reported. “During examination, if PG (Public Grievance) cell arrives at the conclusion that the theft case was false, the discom will be liable to pay compensation to the affected consumer at 10 times the provisional assessment bill raised by the discom to compensate for the harassment caused to the consumer,” it says. Xavier Woods Womens Jersey
Manipur joins UDAY scheme, to get benefits worth Rs 263 crore
Manipur has joined the Ujwal DISCOM (distribution company) Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme meant for revival of debt-stressed power distribution utilities and will get benefits of around Rs 263 crore. Manipur is the 14th state to join the UDAY. It is also the first North Eastern state to opt for the UDAY for improving the efficiency of the DISCOM. The combined DISCOM debt to be restructured in respect of these states is around Rs 2.16 lakh crore as on September 30, 2015. “Government of India, Manipur and the DISCOM of Manipur signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under the UDAY scheme on Tuesday for operational turnaround of the DISCOM,” Power Ministry said in a statement. The reduction in aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses and transmission losses by Manipur to 15 per cent and 3.20 per cent respectively is likely to bring additional revenue of around Rs 208 crore during the period of turnaround. The state would also gain around Rs 32 crore due to coal reforms. Besides demand side interventions in the UDAY such as usage of energy-efficient light emitting diode bulbs, agricultural pumps would result in gain of around Rs 17 crore. It said that improvement in operation efficiency would enable the DISCOM to borrow at cheaper rates in future, for their infrastructure development and improvement of existing infrastructure. The expected benefit to the State on this account is around Rs 6 crore during the turnaround period. An overall net benefit of approximately Rs 263 crore would accrue to the state by opting to participate in the UDAY, by way of cheaper funds, reduction in AT&C and transmission losses, interventions in energy efficiency, coal reforms etc. during the period of turnaround. The healthy DISCOMs in Manipur would be in a position to supply more power. Thus, the scheme would allow speedy availability of power to around 188 villages and 2.43 lakh households in the state that are still without electricity. Derek Rivers Jersey
Give us cheap power, Piyushji
Not only have we been told India is a surplus power nation, those on Twitter will see a tweet from power minister, Piyush Goyal, everyday on how much electricity is available on various power exchanges, and at what price. On Thursday, for instance, he tweeted “Afternoon power check: 2,377 MW available at Rs 2.17/unit for states to buy”—a sample of his tweets over the past few weeks have been reproduced here for ready reference. If that much electricity is available at so low a price, even after you add on wheeling and other charges, the question is why this power is not available to consumers who are, for instance, paying Rs 7-8 per unit to a BSES or an NDPL in Delhi? That too will happen, Piyush Goyal will tell you, once he is is able to talk to the state governments and also pass necessary amendments in the Electricity Act which will allow for the creation of just a carriage company, which owns the power lines going into the premises of customers and charges a fee for transporting electricity—in jargon, this is called separating carriage from content. In other words, in a city like Delhi, for instance, a BSES will have a power distribution company and also one that owns the electricity lines that go into the homes of consumers. Once this is done, any citizen can buy the power Goyal tweets about, get into an agreement with BSES, to transport the power—BSES will probably have some back-to-back agreement with other transporters like Power Grid—and get the cheaper electricity. Apart from the wheeling and other charges that the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) will set, there will also be a cross-subsidy surcharge to take care of the fact that higher-paying customers will be leaving BSES—the money is to allow BSES to continue to subsidise other sets of consumers, and the idea is to keep reducing this cross-subsidy surcharge every year. Apart from the fact that it is not clear by when Goyal will be able to get the amendments to the Electricity Act through, it is also not clear if he is giving a firm deadline to states to implement this. Because, if he isn’t, it’s almost a certainty the states will not implement it. While no one can doubt Goyal’s intentions, what’s not clear is why he needs to reinvent the wheel since most of these provisions are there in the Electricity Act of 2003 itself. Goyal’s new plans, it is true, are a step or two ahead of what the Electricity Act of 2003 had envisaged, but if even this first step has not been taken, where is the question of taking the much bigger ones? Section 42(2) of the Electricity Act clearly says, “The State Commission shall introduce open access in such phases and subject to such conditions… as may be specified within one year of the appointed date”—that is, this was to be done by 2014. “Open access” is what allows users to buy power from NTPC, in UP, use Power Grid’s wires to transport the power to Delhi, and then BSES’ lines to get it to your residence. This, you could say, is left pretty much open ended, which is why, another proviso of the same Section 42 says, “Provided also that the State Commission, shall not later than five years from the date of commencement of the Electricity (Amendment) Act, 2003 provide such open access to all consumers who require a supply of electricity where the maximum power to be made available at any time exceeds one megawatt”. In other words, begin with large users such as apartment complexes, shopping malls and industrial units. Naturally, the state governments and the electricity boards were loathe to give up their power. After all, once consumers start buying power from the exchange, the state electricity board’s ability to buy costly power—and in large quantities—will also be constrained. So, the government never implemented this section of the Act. With the Planning Commission insisting that all those who consumed more than 1 MW of power had to, by law, be freed from the clutches of the state electricity boards—or their counterparts, the private sector discoms—the matter went to the power ministry and the law ministry in 2010. The Attorney General GE Vahanvati said that while consumers with the demand of more than 1 MW could be considered “open access” customers—and therefore their tariffs would not be set by the regulatory commission—he said this applied only to those who specifically opted for it. This sounds like a banal distinction, but isn’t because SEBs often arm-twist customers not to leave—we won’t be responsible if the alternative power supply fails, we can’t guarantee there will be a power lines to carry the power you buy from a third party, etc. The matter went back to the Planning Commission which pleaded its case and again, on March 31, 2011, Vahanvati wrote,“Whether a state regulatory commission can continue to regulate the tariff for supply of electricity to any consumer of 1 MW above—No, for the reasons set out here in above”. After processing, the matter was signed off by the then law minister M Veerappa Moily on April 13, 2011. In other words, even if, say, a Maruti Udyog chose not to move away from the Haryana utility that supplied it power, the tariff would not be decided by the regulator, but would be bilaterally negotiated—and, in that negotiation, the rates that Goyal tweets about regularly would be factored in. Naturally, if costs couldn’t be loaded on to a Maruti Udyog, the regulator would have to look at charging other sections more economic rates and force the SEBs/discoms to reduce ATC losses. In the event, while Goyal’s carriage-and-content plan can go on as scheduled, he simply has to implement the Electricity Act in all seriousness and that includes ensuring open access is allowed for all customers within a few years, but for the for the 1 MW people immediately—once that is done,