NTPC joins global league with 50,000plus MW capacity, straddles all segments of generation biz
India’s largest power producer NTPC has switched on its first wind power project to mark its presence in nearly all segments of generation business, except nuclear power. The feat comes within days of the state-run company joining the global league by crossing the 50,000-MW generation capacity on March 31st, 2017. As a group, NTPC’s total capacity now stands at 50,750 MW. The state-run generator forayed into the wind segment by commissioning a turbine of 2 MW at the 50-MW Rojmal wind project in Gujarat on Monday. The company added 13,395 MW during the 12th plan, exceeding the capacity addition target of 11,920 MW. Some 3,520 MW of new capacity was added in 2016-17, including 510 MW of new solar capacity. The company has also started production from its first captive coal mine at Pakri Barwadih in Jharkhand to become an integrated coal-based power producer. Simultaneously with the expansion of its coal-fired generation capacity, NTPC has been steadily ramping up its renewable portfolio too. In 2016-17, the company’s Koldam Hydel Station in Himachal Pradesh achieved its highest-ever generation of 3.225 billion units. Its solar stations also achieved their highest-ever generation at 527 million units. NTPC’s standalone generation crossed 250 billion units and Group generation topped 276 Billion units in 2016-17. NTPC’s coal-based stations achieved a plant load factor of 78.6% against a national average of roughly 6%. Justin Blackmon Authentic Jersey
BJP alleges “power scam” worth crores in Uttarakhand
The Uttarakhand BJP today alleged that the previous Harish Rawat led Congress government had “favoured” some gas based plants while entering into power purchase agreements which had led to a hike in electricity tariff in the state. “The previous government struck a deal with gas based power plants in Kashipur to purchase power from them for 35 years at the rate of Rs 4.70 per unit at a time when its rate should have been just Rs 2.74 per unit, causing a loss of Rs 50 crore per month to the state exchequer,” state BJP spokesman Vinay Goel told reporters here. It is a “power scam” worth at least a thousand crore rupees, he said. Goel claimed that the recent hike in power tariff in Uttarakhand was necessitated by the need to compensate the losses caused to the state exchequer by the deal inked between Harish Rawat government and the gas based power plants in Kashipur. Attacking the rival party, he said that its leaders had no moral right to create a fuss over the hike as “it was a result of the misdeeds of its own government”. The spokesperson said that he has drawn the attention of Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to the huge scam in power purchase who has promised that no one who is guilty would be spared. The Uttarakhand Electricity Regulation Commission had recently effected a 5.72 per cent hike in power rates evoking sharp reaction from opposition Congress which had criticised it saying that it would increase the burden on the common people. Chris Conner Womens Jersey
New industrial policy for UP soon: Power Minister
The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday announced that the state would soon get a new industrial policy. “A Group of Ministers, with five ministers as its members, has been constituted. It would visit various states in the country to help the government to form a new industrial policy,” Power Minister Srikant Sharma said at a press conference here. He said a committee has also been constituted to look into issues related to potato growers in the state. Talking about crime, Sharma said the government has been following “zero tolerance” against crime and will continue with the same policy in the future too. Sharma, along with state Home Minister Sidharth Nath Singh, was addressing the media after the first cabinet meeting of the newly formed government in Uttar Pradesh. Tom Savage Authentic Jersey
Capitals power demand hits new peak for March
With temperatures soaring, power demand in the city has touched a new high. The peak power demand on March 31 touched 4,139 MW — the highest recorded demand for this month. The maximum temperature recorded in the city was 39 degrees Celsius, seven notches above the season’s normal, according to Meteorological Department officials. According to data from BSES, one of the power discoms in the city, power demand here crossed the 4,000 MW mark in March. After a record demand of 4,116 MW on March 30, the demand rose to 4,139 MW the next day. From just 259 MW peak demand in 1971, the demand for power has only gone up drastically. Gruelling summer Power discoms however claimed that they’re prepared for summer months, which according to the Meteorological Department will be gruelling. “These arrangements include long-term power purchase agreements [PPAs] and banking arrangements with other States. The BRPL will get around 200 MW of power through banking arrangements and BYPL around 170 MW. In case of unforeseen contingencies due to low generation and outages at power plants, the discoms will purchase short-term power from the exchange,” BSES said. Biggest guzzler Stating that the domestic sector was the biggest guzzler of electricity in Delhi, experts said providing more power to the city wasn’t a comprehensive solution. A report released by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on Load Generation Balance Report last year highlighted that Delhi consumes more electricity than Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Kerala, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Sikkim and all the North-East States. It also uses more power than all other metros put together. Household electricity consumption per capita is about 43 units per month against the national average of 25, they added. Vicious circle Anumita Roychowdhury, the executive director at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said high temperatures and dependence on air-conditioners was a vicious circle that Delhiites needed to break. According to CSE analysis, Delhi’s peak power consumption will double by 2021 at this rate. Power subsidy “High use of ACs is also a contributor to global warming and we depend on these due to growing temperature. This cycle needs to break and that can only be done when the government takes some stringent measures,” Ms. Roychowdhury added. She said the Delhi government gives 50% power subsidy to households for monthly consumption of up to 400kWh. Delhi’s average consumption is only about 181 kWh and nearly two-fifths of households consume less than 100 kWh per month. The subsidy thus allows comfortable use of a number of appliances like air conditioners and cushions substantial household energy costs. “The government must introduce a mandatory energy audit and consumption-based energy billing to improve operational efficiency of all buildings. It must also make it obligatory for all buildings to publicly disclose data on annual energy usage along with the built-up area,” Ms. Roychowdhury added further. Rhys Hoskins Jersey
Benefits Of UDAY Scheme Have Started Showing With Steep Fall in Financial Losses of States, Piyush Goyal
Impressive reduction in financial losses of states who have joined the UDAY scheme have come to fore. Union minister of power, coal, RE and mines Piyush Goyal shared on Monday how the financial losses of Tamil Nadu are expected to come down by one-third this year while that of Rajasthan (that stood at Rs 15000 crore) will come down to about Rs 5500 crore. UDAY (or Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) seeks to turnaround DISCOMs and a total of 27 states and UTs have joined. The minister said that 85% UDAY bonds have already been issued (Rs 2.32 lakh crore out of total Rs 2.72 lakh crore). On the T&D losses in states, the minister said he has asked for collation of the data. However, he added that more than the menace of T&D losses is the problem of unaccounted or unmetered connections that have not been shared by certain states. The minister said he was shocked to find that there were 63 lakhs unmetered connections in Uttar Pradesh, a trend that was so far kept under wraps by the previous state government. A recent review by him of the power sector in Uttar Pradesh has revealed that as many as 63 lakh connections are unmetered in the state, Goyal said, adding that this trend is going on for years. Instructions have been issued to relevant authorities in this regard, he said. While in the previous regime Uttar Pradesh was hardly buying any power but they bought around 1100 mw power from the exchange on Sunday, Goyal said. Commenting on the power availability, the minister said that even during the peak hours during the ongoing summers, power is available at Rs 2.66 a unit on the exchanges across the nation. He disclosed that he was informed by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra two days back that during the heat wave in the state, the peak demand had reached 23,055 mw but there were no outages reported. On the RE front, Goyal said the government will encourage more local solar manufacturing for the solar energy sector that is heavily dependent on imports of solar panels and modules. “Those setting up solar manufacturing units should locate them close to NTPC’s power plants so that power supply is not a problem,” he said. Goyal further said that with surplus coal production in India (with 60 mt of stock with Coal India), states were being encouraged to shift their plans to set up imported coal-based ultra-mega power plants to domestic coal-based plants. He said Tamil Nadu has agreed to shelve its imported coal-based ultra-mega power plant at Cheyyur and would set up a domestic coal-based UMPP. The minister said the total coal production has increased to 554 MT in 2016-17 from 462 MT in 2013-14. After sufficient production, coal quality is the next frontier after achieving adequate coal for all power plants, he added. Carlos Dunlap Womens Jersey
Adani Group meets Amarinder Singh, wants to invest in Punjab
The Adani Group has shown interest in investing in Punjab and the companies’ top functionaries met Chief Minister Amarinder Singh here on Monday to pursue the matter, officials said. Adani Group president and chairman of several key companies of the Gujarat-based group, Pranav V. Adani met Amarinder Singh here to discuss possible areas of investment in Punjab. The Adani Group is already running a solar power generation unit in Bathinda and have showed interest in expanding their presence in the state, the officials said here. Adani Green Energy Ltd had, in 2016, had commissioned Punjab’s largest solar power plant of 100 MW in Bathinda with an investment of Rs 640 crore. Another Adani company has set up silos worth RS 250 crore for grain storage in Punjab. An investment of another RS 210 crore is being made in this field. Adani told the Chief Minister that the Group’s businesses, which also include real estate and city gas distribution (CNG and pipeline network), have a big potential to scale up Punjab’s progress. “The Group’s emerging businesses, such as water purification, defence and aerospace, drones manufacture etc, also find synergies with the state’s public welfare and strategic growth interests,” he noted. Philadelphia Phillies Womens Jersey
Surmounting AT&C losses negating effect of cheap power
Despite having an installed capacity of 18755 MW including that from Independent Power Producers (IPP), Madhya Pradesh needs to plug Aggregate Transmission and Commercial (AT&C) losses for providing cheap power to the end users, according to a top HPPPL official. “In 2003, Government of India brought about major power sector reforms through Electricity Act, 2003. At that time, MP was facing huge power cuts and supply demand mismatch due to lower generation base of 4673 MW. The state took a decision to bring about investor friendly policies to encourage private sector investment in the power sector. This led to increased participation of IPPs in the sector and installed capacity grew by almost 300% at 18755 MW in the span of 12 years,” Hindustan Power Projects Private Ltd Chairman Ratul Puri told today. “This has resulted in a very competitive Average Cost of Supply (ACS) for state discoms as compared to many other states. Despite having one of the lowest ACS, the state is facing challenge of increased gaps due to lower Average Revenue. This gap can be minimised by Tariff rationalisation and reduction in AT&C losses,” he said. However Puri pointed out that state discoms stand at cumulative losses of Rs 28,777 crore as of FY 2015 and these surmounting losses are negating the effect of the cheap power available from IPPs and burdening the end consumer with the higher tariff. “Discoms need to strengthen their infrastructure, do some re-engineering to stop the energy pilferage. Such measures will reap more fruits in reduction of AT&C losses without increase in the consumer tariff,” he suggested. The increase in the capacity because of private sector which stand at almost 45% (8347 MW) has made the state of Madhya Pradesh a power sufficient state. Madhya Pradesh now takes pride in supplying round the clock reliable power to the consumers and being one of the fastest growing states in the country having annual state GDP growth rate of more than 10 per cent. Further, the MP government has also signed Government of India (GOI) initiative of 24X7 power for all by 2019 but that requires to bring down the AT&C losses from current 23.15 per cent to 17 per cent by financial year 2019, he added. Derek Rivers Jersey
To cut tariff, government wants to link coal bids to lower charges in PPAs
In a move aimed at lowering consumer electricity tariffs, the government has proposed to bid coal from state-run Coal India to those power generators that agree to cut the supply charges quoted in their power purchase agreements (PPAs). PPAs are legal documents signed between power producers and power distribution companies. “The power ministry is consulting electricity regulators whether the proposal to open PPAs is within the purview of the Electricity Act,” a senior government official said. About 10,000 MW of power plants have signed PPAs but do not have coal supplies. Earlier, the government was considering to auction coal to power companies that agree to pay the highest. “The new proposal is in tune with the government’s aim to pass on benefits to consumers and lower electricity tariffs,” another government official said. The policy also proposes that all future coal tie-ups by CIL will be allotted to state distribution companies that in turn will call tariff-based competitive bids from companies on the lines of ultra mega power projects. In July last year, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had deferred decision on the policy for award of CIL contracts to power firms. The government has already finalised a policy for auction of Coal India contracts to unregulated sectors like steel and cement. According to the policy, private steel and cement firms will have to indicate their coal requirement and end-use projects to the coal ministry before bidding for supply from Coal India. As per the mechanism, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in February last year, separate bidding will be held for cement, iron & steel, aluminium and fertiliser plants. Coal India will invite bids from companies for supplying a fixed quantity of coal at a floor price. Once the bids are received, the state-run miner will increase the floor price till the demand and supply reach the same level. However, the current fuel supply contracts of steel and cement companies with Coal India will not be prematurely discontinued. The government will wait for the contracts to end and then auction them. Most fuel supply contracts of Coal India are set to lapse this year. DeAndre Hopkins Womens Jersey
Government sets up National Board for Electric Mobility seven years after approval
More than six years after it was approved by the UPA government, the Centre has constituted NBEM to promote electric mobility and manufacturing of electric (& hybrid) vehicles and their components. The Union Cabinet chaired by former Prime Minister Minister Manmohan Singh had on March 31, 2011 cleared the proposals for launch of the National Mission for Electric Mobility and setting up of a National Board for Electric Mobility (NBEM) and National Council for Electric Mobility. The NBEM will examine, formulate and propose the short-term and long-term plan and contours of the mission programme on electric mobility, its objectives, quantifiable outcomes and roles & responsibilities of the various stakeholders. It will propose and recommend policy guidelines and government interventions and possible strategies for promoting electric mobility and for encouraging manufacture of electric vehicles in the country. One of its key functions will be to explore and recommend collaborations and tie-ups for technology acquisitions, obtaining technical experts and explore possible agreements with leading R&D centres globally to facilitate availability of technology to the domestic industry. The NBEM, to be chaired by the Secretary of Department of Heavy Industry, will comprise of senior bureaucrats as members, including secretaries in the Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, among others. It will also have six nominated members of eminence and expertise from the automobile industry, academia and research & development. These include Vikram Kirloskar, CMD, Kirloskar Systems Ltd; Vinod Dashari, MD, Ashok Leyland; Pawan Goenka, MD, Mahindra and Mahindra; Annamalai Hemalatha, MD, Ampere Vehicles Ltd and Sudarshan Venu, Joint MD, TVS Motors. The nominated members will have a tenure of two years, or until further government order, whichever is earlier. These members can be re-nominated for additional terms, if needed. The NBEM will coordinate and resolve difference of opinion, if any, among various ministries. It will examine, recommend, monitor and review electric mobility related R&D projects and pilot projects and also evaluate and propose business models for popularising electric mobility. It will formulate strategies and give directions to the various ministries and other stakeholders for implementing the decisions of the National Council for Electric Mobility. Bruce Ellington Authentic Jersey
Depressed domestic prices make IEX look abroad for power trade
The India Energy Exchange is looking to garner a share of the power trade with neighbouring countries as subdued demand in the domestic spot market has depressed average tariffs. In its representation to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, short-term power purchase market IEX has noted, “…Cross Border trade through Power Exchange should be incorporated in view of the Cross Border transactions in TAM (Term Ahead Market) segment.” This will allow the power producers to directly offer electricity to power distribution companies or to nodal agencies appointed by the neighbouring countries through the IEX platform. Domestic consumers can also directly purchase power from designated authorities. Currently, India has transmission networks with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh and power transfer is permitted after the government approval. “We estimate a power demand of 100 MW to 200 MW per day from cross border trade in the spot market immediately and this is going to grow,” Director, Business Development at IEX, Rajesh Mediratta told BusinessLine . The exchange currently trades over 4,900 MW of power per day in the domestic market he added. Power prices in the spot market have been depressed over the past two years. According to data shared by IEX, the average Market Clearing Price for February 2014 was Rs. 3.29 per unit, this fell to Rs. 2.85 per unit in February 2015, then to Rs. 2.30 per unit in February 2016 and has risen marginally to Rs. 2.54 per unit in February 2017. Low demand Due to the relatively low demand from abroad, prices are not expected to move upwards substantially. However, the prospect of increasing cross border power trade can push them up in the long run. Mediratta explained that the low prices have promoted domestic power traders to explore neighbouring markets. “There is a demand from local traders to sell power in Bangladesh and Nepal,” he said. The other trigger for increasing cross border trade is the government push to increase renewable energy in India’s energy mix. Mediratta said, “Hydro Power generators from Bhutan having merchant capacity are looking forward to trading on the exchange with Indian consumers.” According to the Central Electricity Authority India has turned around from a net importer of electricity to net exporter of electricity during the current financial year (April to February 2017). India has exported around 5,798 million units to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar. This is 213 million units more than the import of around 5,585 million units from Bhutan. The export to Nepal increased 2.5 times and export to Bangladesh has grown by 2.8 times in the last. Rishard Matthews Jersey