Electrification drive: REC averages 30,000 new connections per week
India is in electrification overdrive, with about 30,000 new electricity connections being granted every week. The Union power ministry is mapping the progress live on a website and is also measuring changes in lifestyle in the recently electrified villages, collecting largest data of its kind. NITI Aayog, the Centre’s premier think tank, has advocated that other ministries use this data for other social welfare schemes. As per the Garv-2 portal, 23,000 new electricity connections were given last week and 41,000 in the previous week. In the ninth week of this calendar year, 28,000 power consumers were taken on board. State-run Rural Electrification Corporation is targeting to scale up the drive to grant 100,000 connections every week, its executive director Dinesh Arora said. India has never seen electrification at such large scale earlier, and neither have details been made available on electrification at household level. Electrification data was only captured for families below poverty line earlier. The Garv-2 portal was launched on December 20, 2016. “We expect it to stabilise and accelerate the drive by March 31,” Arora said. Power ministry officials said the Aayog has recommended Garv-2 application be used for sanitation and other social schemes. In February, 66,000 new customers were registered and in March so far 86,000 new connections have been granted. The new connections are uploaded live on the website with meter and contact details. The government has also kick-started an electrification impact survey on villages that have been electrified for more than six months. Brian Urlacher Womens Jersey
Kalpataru Power Transmission to scale up business to beat slowdown
Kalpataru Power Transmission, which has so far enjoyed a strong foothold in engineering jobs for the power transmission sector, is scaling up its business in pipeline and railways-related jobs to offset the slowdown in domestic orders. The company expects to grow at 15-20 per cent with operating margins of around 11 per cent in the current fiscal to March and in the next year 2017-18, managing director Manish Mohnot told ET, in an exclusive interview. “Things are moving much better in the international market than in India. We have not seen much orders coming from Power Grid Corporation of India in the last six months, but we expect it to change in March and early first quarter of 2017-18,” Mohnot said. The company’s order book was worth Rs. 8,300 crore as on December-end, which included 55 per cent of international orders, 33 per cent domestic power transmission jobs, and 12 per cent of orders from the pipeline and railway sectors. The international business primarily comes from African countries and the company aims to expand its presence in the continent. “In the international market, we have projects worth Rs . 4,0005,000 crore to be bid between now and May, on the domestic front it is the same number. Railways is a big number, in the next two months we want to bid for orders worth Rs. 5,000-6,000 crore, and pipeline would be a few thousand crores. As per tendering, we are on track for the next six-seven months,” Mohnot explained. “Our revenue mix earlier was 90% from transmission and 10 per cent from pipeline and rail. Share of pipeline and railways has already increased to 15 per cent and getting into next year, we expect it to be 20-25 per cent. Clearly, the growth in these new businesses is and will remain higher, but transmission would continue to be our most significant business,” he said. The company said it is favourably placed as the best bidder for orders worth over Rs. 3,000 crore. The fledgling businesses were also reporting significant improvement in margins and has a robust order pipeline. “Railways has a big order pipeline and we want to bid for orders worth Rs. 5,000-6,000 crore in the next two months; in the pipeline business, it would be worth a few thousand crores. We are on track for the next six-seven months as far as tendering goes.” The company , which is currently executing two projects under the public-private partnership model, will continue to explore more projects and will also look for financial partners for these projects. “It is a competitive market and at times we do see irrational bids.If we look at Kalpataru’s philosophy, our focus is profitability.We don’t participate in it unless it is strategic,” Mohnot said. Julien Gauthier Womens Jersey
PFC signs pact with MSEDCL for Rs 3,000 crore loan
State-run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) today said it has signed a loan agreement with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co (MSEDCL) for financial assistance of Rs 3,000 crore. This assistance will help MSEDCL meet its operational requirements within the working capital eligibility allowed under the UDAY scheme. The loan will help MSEDCL clear its outstanding power purchase liabilities also, PFC said in a statement. The loan document was signed by S L Pimpalkhute, Director (finance), MSEDCL, in the presence of Rajeev Sharma, CMD, PFC. Tom Jackson Authentic Jersey
Tangedco cuts losses by Rs 2,000 crore in one year
Tangedco’s losses have come down by nearly Rs 2,000 crore over the past year, the discom having ended this financial year with a loss of Rs 3,675.76 crore. It has seen a 5% increase in sale of power due to which the revenue has increased by Rs 2,000 crore and the cost of fuel has also reduced due to availability of local coal. The financial position of the discom is considerably better after a record loss of Rs 13,500 crore in 2013-14. With the debts being taken over by the government under the Uday scheme, the discom is hopeful of a break-even in 2017-18, mainly due to the interest cost coming down. “In our budget estimates we thought we will end the year with a loss of Rs 6,374.17 crore in 2016-17. But due to better fuel price and sale of power, our loss has come down by half of what we had anticipated,“ a senior Tangedco official told TOI. Apart from better sale of power and lower fuel price, Tangedco has also got better subsidy from the government. “Soon after the AIADMK took charge after the assembly election, the then chief minister J Jayalalithaa announced 100 units free for domestic consumers. Already power is being supplied free to farmers and huts. For all these, we get subsidy from the government and this year we received Rs 8,621 crore as subsidy against Rs 7,695 crore last year,“ said the official. Purchase of power from private thermal, wind and solar power companies has increased only by 2.87%. “There was better demand in the last year and Tangedco supplied power without any shortage. But the company purchased power from a lower tariff and more wind power was evacuated during the season. All these helped to lower the purchase cost,“ the official said. The accounts will be presented to the Tangedco board after getting its nod. The year ahead is promising for Tangedco. “The interest cost in the coming year will be lower by more than Rs 1,000 crore as the debt has been taken over by the government under the Uday scheme. This alone will bring down the loss and we are also hoping to lower the fuel cost,“ said the official. On the expenditure side, the company will have to allocate Rs 700 crore for 7th Pay Commission for Tangedco employees. “The unions have started working on the new pay commission but it will be finalised only after the committee set up by the government for its employees submits its report,“ he said. Xavien Howard Jersey
The dark secret behind India’s solar plan to bring power to all
Like generations before him, the only light Jurdar Thingya has at night in his one-room mud hut in India’s Maharashtra state comes from a small wood fire on the floor. A broken solar panel is all that the 35-year-old farmer has to remind him of the government’s promise to bring electricity to all of India’s villages. Bhamana, population 1,500, is two hours’ walk from the nearest surfaced road, across a river that is impassable for months during the monsoon rains. Like other remote villages, it was powered by renewable energy as part of a drive to take electricity to every community in the state, according to Dinesh Saboo, projects director at Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co., the power retailer. Maharashtra, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, declared itself fully electrified in 2012, relying on solar panels or small wind turbines to cover remote areas. India considers a village electrified if at least 10 percent of the households and public places such as schools have electricity. But theft and damage have plunged 288 villages and 1,500 hamlets in Maharashtra back into darkness, according to Saboo. “Most of the equipment is either stolen or not working,” he said. “Now we have decided that a majority of these villages will be electrified in the conventional way.” In India, political power and electrical power are closely linked. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which also runs the state government of Maharashtra, was elected in 2014 partly on promises to bring electricity to rural voters. It has pledged to electrify all villages by May 2018 and supply power to every citizen by 2019. Read more on challenges facing efforts to electrify India’s rural population “Rural electrification is one of the most critical issues on which the elections in India are being contested,” said Sandeep Shastri, a political commentator who teaches at Jain University in Bengaluru. “People will weigh the promises of the governments — both federal and state — on the basis of implementation. Their electoral gains will be determined by the credibility of their promises.” Shastri said rural electrification contributed to the landslide win last week of Modi’s party in Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s least-developed states, where voters compared the federal government’s efforts with the lack of progress from the incumbent state government. Power Surge There are a lot of votes to be won. In 2014, the World Bank ranked India as home to the world’s largest unelectrified population. Power was either unaffordable, inadequate or non-existent for 240 million people, according to data from the International Energy Agency. An expanding economy and population put the country on track to be the biggest driver of global energy demand through 2040, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. But progress has been patchy. The government has met 77 percent of its target to link villages to power grids, yet only about 14 percent for villages earmarked for off-grid power like solar. Some 47 million rural households are still without electricity, and even those connected to the grid suffer frequent outages. Federal renewable energy secretary Rajeev Kapoor didn’t immediately respond to calls and a text message seeking comments. In 2012, the nation suffered one of the worst blackouts in history when the national grid collapsed, cutting power for two days to almost half the nation’s population. About one in five Indians lacked access to electricity, compared with full electrification in China, the International Energy Agency said in a 2016 report. When the first solar units were installed in Bhamana in 2010, most houses got a small photovoltaic panel connected to a battery that could power a light for five to six hours. Seven years later, only four or five houses still have working lamps. Dead Battery “We have no clue how to fix the equipment,” said Achildar Pesra Pawra, a member of the Bhamana village council. “Some batteries stopped working within months. Others lasted for about two years. Some of the solar panels were broken.” Part of the problem is that the factors that make solar attractive for isolated communities — ease of transport and installation — also make them easy to steal, said Shantanu Jaiswal, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. India plans to expand renewable generation capacity more than three-fold to 175 gigawatts by 2022, with the majority from solar. Almost a quarter of the total will be supplied by rooftop panels. “The instances of theft and destruction of distributed renewable energy appliances has been very prevalent in programs especially run by aid agencies as part of corporate social responsibility or where the government provides a subsidy,” said Jarnail Singh, India director at The Climate Group, a London-based organization promoting low-carbon solutions. ”This is because there is no maintenance of equipment after installation.” Maoist Guerrillas As a result, Maharashtra’s state-owned power retailer is now planning to spend spend 3.85 billion rupees by 2018 to connect many of the isolated villages to the grid. That won’t be easy. Most of the 288 villages that no longer qualify to be called electrified are in mountainous and thickly forested areas. That means getting approval from the forest department to run transmission lines across the land. And in some cases it means finding contractors willing to venture into areas populated with Maoist insurgents. “We are not able to enter some of these areas,” Saboo said. “Many contractors are not prepared to work there and those that are charge very high rates. We are already allowing the highest rates in these areas so that they can get electrified.” For villagers like Thingya, one of the greatest losses from the failure of the solar project is at the village primary school, which was able to light its cavernous classroom even in the dark monsoon days. Now his six children learn in the open air in the dry months and don’t have light to read or study at home. Villager Ardaas Samle Pawra, now 23 and a father of three, gained a few years of secondary
Make solar power generation easier, fix net meter flaws, officials told
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), in an effort to ratchet up solar power generation, will take steps to make net meters easily available in the city. Sudhir Chabbra, chief engineer (commercial), has directed all subdivision officials to ensure a hassle-free procedure is followed to get net meters installed at consumers’ homes. There were allegations that some consumers are not getting the rebate mandated as per the solar policy owing to some glitches in net meters. On Thursday, the chief engineer (commercial) wrote to senior officials of DHBVN in Hisar, stating that accounting of solar power generation and rebate is not being carried out properly at many rooftop solar plants set up by consumers. “This is creating a lot of hardships to consumers, and is adversely affecting the scheme,” the letter read. This hurdle poses a serious concern as the department is taking all efforts to scale up the drive to ensure maximum number of consumers install rooftop panels. “The scheme is designed to tackle air pollution arising out of the use of diesel gensets across Gurgaon,” an official said. The chief engineer asked billing agencies concerned to ensure that proper accounting is carried out through net meters and rebates are given to eligible consumers. “It has also been instructed that field officials should also be sensitised on the issue and a simplified procedure for initiation of billing should be sent to all sub-divisional officials so that the computer-generated billing can be launched by March 31,” an official told TOI. Discom officials said the software that will carry out billing as per the guidelines is in the final stages of completion. “The consumers are facing trouble since the software is not ready. All the preparations have been done now. We are in the final stage of the process.” In an attempt to lure more people into adopting solar power generation, the Haryana government came up with the grid-connected solar plant scheme in 2014, making it mandatory for consumers with area up to 500 square yards to install solar power panels at their houses, for which the government will award them “bountiful” subsidy in power consumption. The same policy has been made mandatory for schools, malls, hotels and industrial units also. Under the Haryana renewable energy department guidelines, domestic consumers can avail of Re 1 incentive per one unit solar power they generate. Industrial consumers can avail of 25 paisa per unit of power generated. According to officials, around 31 net meters have been installed in Gurgaon and around 10 MW solar power is generated. The department, according to them, is planning a three-fold increase in solar power generation this year. As many as 60 more net meters will be installed in the city to achieve the target. According to an official, to get solar panels installed, applicants are supposed to get a sanction from additional deputy commissioners. “Only suppliers authorized by the Ministry of Renewable Energy will install the system,” the official said. A 1KW solar power panel costs Rs 75,000–80,000. “When the system is installed, the relevant papers will be uploaded in the portal,” the official said. “The discom will check that system and issue the consumer a certificate for net metering. At this step, the discom lines will be connected with the plant. The bi-directional meter will be then added to the system,” he said. Menelik Watson Authentic Jersey
India’s solar capacity grows over 3 folds to 10,000 Megawatt in three years
India’s solar power generation capacity has crossed 10,000 megawatt (MW), a more than three-time jump in less than three years as government pushes for renewable energy sources to meet galloping demand. The milestone came as NTPC Ltd, India’s largest power producer, commissioned a 45 MW solar power project at Bhadla in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. “Bright Future: India has crossed 10,000 MW of Solar power capacity today. More than 3 times increase in less than 3 years,” Power, Coal, Mines, New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted. India solar power generation capacity stood at 2,650 MW on May 26, 2014. As much as 14,000 MW (or 14 gigawatt) of solar projects are currently under development and about 6 GW is to be auctioned soon. In 2016, about 4 GW of solar capacity was added, the fastest pace till date. According to power ministry estimates, another 8.8 GW capacity is likely to be added in 2017, including about 1.1 GW of rooftop solar installations. Government is targeting 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy capacity by 2022. Total renewable energy generation capacity is envisaged at 175 GW by 2022. Earlier last month, lower capital expenditure and cheaper credit had pulled down solar tariff to a new low of Rs 2.97 per unit in an auction conducted for 750 MW capacity in Rewa Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh. The auction was conducted by a joint venture of Madhya Pradesh government and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). Last year in January, solar power tariff had dropped to a new low, with Finland-based energy firm Fortum Finnsurya Energy quoting Rs 4.34 a unit to bag the mandate to set up a 70-MW solar plant under NTPC’s Bhadla Solar Park tender. In November 2015, the tariff had touched Rs 4.63 per unit following aggressive bidding by US-based SunEdison, the world’s biggest developer of renewable energy power plants. Joe Flacco Jersey
European Union: Renewables made up 16.7 per cent of energy mix in 2015
European Union statistics show that renewable sources accounted for 16.7 percent of the bloc’s energy consumption in 2015, nearly double the share a decade earlier. EU statistics agency Eurostat said Tuesday that renewable energies’ slice of the cake was up from 16.1 percent in 2014. In 2004, the first year for which data are available, the figure was only 8.5 percent. The EU’s target is to reach 20 percent across the bloc by 2020. Eurostat said that 11 of the 28 EU countries have already reached their own national targets for 2020. In 2015 Sweden had by far the biggest share of renewable energy, which accounted for 53.9 percent of its total consumption. Luxembourg and Malta had the smallest share, with only 5 percent each. Ryan Anderson Womens Jersey
3 CIL subsidiaries slash valuations by at least 75%
Boards of three subsidiaries of state-run Coal India Limited have slashed valuations of the shares of these companies by at least 75% over the values declared earlier this month. The earlier valuations, according to the merchant banker of the listed monopoly miner, did not reflect the true valuation of either the subsidiaries or the parent. But even as the valuations have been reduced, the amount of money that Coal India will receive post reduced valuation through proposed share buybacks remains the same at Rs 5,063 crore. In fresh announcements of buyback post revaluation, the number of shares to be bought back has been increased to keep the total sum the same. Four of Coal India’s eight subsidiaries, including Central Coalfields, had announced share buy-backs last month. As part of the exercise, the boards of these companies had valued their shares. The earlier valuations included factors that are considered for valuing international companies, resulting in higher valuations, said a Coal India executive, who did not wish to be identified. Later it was realised that some of these factors may not be relevant for Indian coal companies, he said. A fresh valuation exercise was thus conducted, leaving out factors that were irrelevant for India. This resulted in reduced valuations for three subsidiaries –Northern Coalfields, Mahanadi Coalfields and South Eastern Coalfields. “Since these subsidiaries are not listed, there was no market driven share valuation available for these companies and the merchant banker had to resort to theoretical norms to ascertain their value,” the executive said. Initially, shares of Northern Coalfields were valued at Rs 1.629 lakh per share of face value Rs 1,000 each. The valuation has been reduced 81% to Rs 30,260 per share. Shares of Mahanadi Coalfields were initially valued at Rs 2.922 lakh per share of face value of Rs 1,000. This has been revised to Rs 35,796 per share. Similarly, shares of South Eastern Coalfields were earlier valued at Rs 79,777 per share, but have been subsequently revalued at Rs 19,599 per share. While shares of the three subsidiaries are now valued between Rs 19,599 and Rs 30,260 per share, shares of its parent, Coal India, were offered at Rs 225-245 per share in 2011. The stock opened at Rs 288 on the Bombay Stock Exchange and reached an all-time high of Rs 440 in 2015. On Tuesday it was quoting at Rs 295 at the Bombay Stock Exchange. “While Coal India’s equity base is almost 620 crore, with each share having a face value of Rs 10, the shares of subsidiaries hold a face value of Rs 1,000 each, and the total number of shares for each of these subsidiaries is a few lakh only, resulting in many times higher valuation for each share than the parent’s,” the executive said. Shea Weber Womens Jersey
Coal supplies to power plants to depend on PPAs
Power companies that win coal contracts with the Coal IndiaBSE -0.03 % Ltd (CIL) in the forthcoming auctions will have to ensure that they sign long and medium-term contracts for power supply with discoms within two years. Coal supplies to the power plants will start only after they sign the power contracts. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is likely to consider the new coal contracts policy for power plants in its next meeting. The clause was required to ensure misuse of coal, said a senior government official. However, private power companies call the clause unfair as discoms have not been floating power requirement tenders regularly. They say the proposed auctions will put winning companies at a disadvantage when they compete for bagging power supply tenders floated by state distribution companies. “Signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) is not in the control of the power companies. There have not been many long-term contracts in the last seven years and looking at the low demand, subdued price of power in the market and falling prices of renewables, the probability of signing PPAs is very low. “We already have an example of mine auctions wherein those who took mines without PPAs have not been able to secure PPAs and operationalize their mines till date. The coal auction policy also puts companies that take part in it at a disadvantage visa-vis those getting coal from CIL at notified price, thus distorting the competitive landscape,” said Association of Power Producers director general Ashok Khurana. As per the proposed policy, the government will auction coal for companies that have the letters of assurance (Lo-As) for coal signed by staterun Coal India with power plant developers. 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. The policy proposes to auction coal to commissioned and to-be-commissioned power plants with a rider that they will sign the PPAs within two years. Earlier the government proposed to auction coal separately to power plants with PPAs and power plants without PPAs. 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 such as steel and cement. The private steel and cement firms will have to indicate their coal requirement and their end-use projects to the coal ministry before bidding for supply from Coal India Ltd. Brian O’Neill Jersey