India’s peak power demand to jump four-fold by 2035-36: draft CEA plan
India’s peak demand for power is expected to rise from the current level of 153 GW to about 690 GW by 2035-36, according to the Perspective Transmission Plan of the Draft National Electricity Plan prepared by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). The CEA is the policy ideation and demand projection arm of the Ministry of Power. The report notes that this “can at best be an indicative plan giving broad transmission corridors across various regions and possible international exchange corridors.” According to the CEA, the demand projection till 2022-36 includes the 14th Plan (2022-2027), 15th Plan (2027-2032) and first three years of 16th (2032-2036) Plan. The massive increase in power generation and transmission infrastructure would require an expenditure of ?2,60,000 crore during the 13th Plan (2017-2022) alone. This also includes an estimate of ?30,000 crore in the transmission system at below 220kV voltage level. The generation projections under the draft National Electricity Plan note that there will be no need for coal-based power generation capacity addition in the country from 2017 to 2022. Effectively this suggests that all new projects during the 13th Plan need to be restricted to the transmission sector. Integration of renewable energy into the grid will be a focus area, according to report. The transmission corridors between various regions are sufficient to cater to variable dispatches of wind and solar, both during evening peak and noon time (when solar dispatches are high), provided the gas generation is reduced to zero and coal based generation are also brought down as shown under various scenarios, the report said. The analysis assumes that, the all-India peak dispatch from wind would be 50 per cent of the wind installed capacity due to spatial diversity. It is also assumed that the all-India dispatch from solar plants would be 60 per cent of the installed capacity during summer months and 50 per cent during rest of the months. James Paxton Authentic Jersey
Enough transmission capacity till 2022: CEA
India will not need power transmission projects in addition to the already planned capacity till 2021-22, a report by power sector planner Central Electricity Authority (CEA) said, citing low electricity consumption, delay in development of proposed power generation plants and high growth in power transmission capacity. A senior CEA official said while the country has over achieved transmission system capacity addition targets, some power generation projects have got stuck on account of various factors including shortage of finance and lack of demand for electricity from distribution utilities. “From system studies, it was observed that the already planned transmission corridors towards SR (southern region) and NR (northern region) are sufficient to cater to the assessed import requirement of SR/NR for year 2021-22 under base as well as N-1 contingency conditions,” CEA said in the draft national electricity plan for transmission. It is estimated that an expenditure of Rs 260,000 crore would be carried out during 2017-22 for addition to transmission system capacity. CEA said that the already planned transmission corridors between various regions is sufficient to tackle variations in generation from wind and solar power plants. Marc Staal Jersey
Budget 2017: Looking for tax sops for solar rooftops and renewables, says power minister Piyush Goyal
Piyush Goyal, Power and Energy minister is looking forward to some sops for the power sector in the upcoming Budget 2017. Speaking to CNBC TV 18 in an exclusive interview Goyal said, “I am looking for tax sops for solar rooftops and renewables in Budget.” Talking further about the power sector he said that he is looking at revitalising hydro sector and tenders of wind power projects will be floated soon. The government is trying hard to boost hydro power sector. The government is planning to formulate a policy to push stalled projects and extend the benefits for renewable sources like wind and solar to hydro projects beyond 25 MW capacity. “We are looking at coming up with a pro-active hydro power policy to push stalled projects and explore the possibility of extending benefits for renewable sources like wind and solar to hydro projects beyond 25 MW,” Piyush Goyal recently said. Hydro power potential in the country has been estimated at about 150 GW, with 50 GW coming from Arunachal Pradesh alone. Meanwhile, Goyal also spoke about demonetisation. Stating that demonetisation has been a success in every way, he said that the clean up process taken by the government will give rich dividends to the poor via low inflation. “Demonetisation is not a one-tanche effort. It had multiple goals,” he added. Narendra Modi government’s 50-day window to exchange old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes ends today. HomeBudget Budget 2017: Looking for tax sops for solar rooftops and renewables, says power minister Piyush Goyal Budget 2017: Looking for tax sops for solar rooftops and renewables, says power minister Piyush Goyal Piyush Goyal, Power and Energy minister is looking forward to some sops for the power sector in the upcoming Budget 2017. By: FE Online | Published: December 30, 2016 1:08 PM 1.3K SHARES FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInEmail Talking further about the power sector he said that he is looking at revitalising hydro sector and tenders of wind power projects will be floated soon. Talking further about the power sector he said that he is looking at revitalising hydro sector and tenders of wind power projects will be floated soon. Piyush Goyal, Power and Energy minister is looking forward to some sops for the power sector in the upcoming Budget 2017. Speaking to CNBC TV 18 in an exclusive interview Goyal said, “I am looking for tax sops for solar rooftops and renewables in Budget.” Talking further about the power sector he said that he is looking at revitalising hydro sector and tenders of wind power projects will be floated soon. The government is trying hard to boost hydro power sector. The government is planning to formulate a policy to push stalled projects and extend the benefits for renewable sources like wind and solar to hydro projects beyond 25 MW capacity. “We are looking at coming up with a pro-active hydro power policy to push stalled projects and explore the possibility of extending benefits for renewable sources like wind and solar to hydro projects beyond 25 MW,” Piyush Goyal recently said. Hydro power potential in the country has been estimated at about 150 GW, with 50 GW coming from Arunachal Pradesh alone. ALSO READ: Union Budget 2017 should look at reducing tax rate, housing sector may get focus: Keki Mistry, HDFC Meanwhile, Goyal also spoke about demonetisation. Stating that demonetisation has been a success in every way, he said that the clean up process taken by the government will give rich dividends to the poor via low inflation. “Demonetisation is not a one-tanche effort. It had multiple goals,” he added. Narendra Modi government’s 50-day window to exchange old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes ends today. Tired Of Making Losses In Investments? Here’s What You Need To Do It is now clear that demonetisation is only one of the many steps towards the grand goal Modi government has set for itself. In an interview to India Today on Thursday, PM Modi himself warned, “You must understand we took the decision on demonetisation not for some short-term windfall gain, but for a long-term structural transformation.” Darren Fells Jersey
Another tender for 500 MW solar power
The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) has permitted the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) to float another tender to procure 500 MW of solar power through competitive bidding. The move follows the tepid response to TANGEDCO’s earlier tender, which drew 20 bidders for setting up solar power plants in the State for a combined capacity of 122 MW. The benchmark rate for the tender was ?5.10 per unit. Of the 20 bidders, two companies — GRT & Sons and GRT Firm — had quoted the lowest rate of ?4.50 per unit with respect to their proposed solar power plants of 10 MW each, TANGEDCO stated in a petition to TNERC. Competitive bids The power utility added that the rate offered by the eligible bidders (GRT & Sons and GRT) was more competitive and that it had accepted their bids. However, of the 500-MW capacity in total, only 20 MW had been finalised during the earlier tender. Hence, TANGEDCO has proposed to float another tender for 500-MW capacity through the reverse bidding process (e-bidding), the petition said. TANGEDCO has sought a procurement price of ?4.50 per unit in the proposed new tender. The procurement of solar power was aimed at meeting the solar renewable purchase obligation of five per cent that has been fixed for the year 2017-18. Demetrius Harris Authentic Jersey
Punjab power utility gets award from Central panel
PUNJAB STATE Power Corporation Limited has been awarded for being the best performing power distribution utility by Central Board of Irrigation and Power. The award was given to Karan Deep Chaudhri, chairman-cum-managing director of PSPCL, by Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, on Saturday. A jury, comprising A S Bakshi, member, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, S D Dubey, chairperson of Central Electricity Authority, Ashok Sethi, executive director, Tata Power, G S Jha, CWC chairman, A B Pandya, former CWC chairman, K S Popli, CMD, IREDA, and Ashvini Kumar, MD, SECI, was constituted to choose the best power utility. Chaudhri said PSPCL has been awarded for its outstanding contribution to Punjab by providing reliable 24×7 cost-effective electricity to all categories of consumers and overall development through optimisation of available resources, bringing transparency and ensuring ease of doing business through information technology initiatives, especially in the distribution sector. PSPCL has one of the lowest transmission and distribution losses in the country. It brought down T&D losses from 23.92 per cent in 2007 to 14.63 per cent in 2016. Punjab is the first state to provide unique phone number 1912 for registration of all types of complaints 24X7 by phone and SMS, stated Chaudhri. He added that no grid sub-station/feeder/11 KV sub-station is overloaded in the state. He added that an infrastructure upgradation of 47 major towns of Punjab under the R-APDRP scheme is being done at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore. Chaudhri congratulated and thanked all PSPCL officers and employees for making it possible to achieve this milestone. Nick Ahmed Authentic Jersey
Smart electricity meters can be dangerously insecure
Smart electricity meters, of which there are more than 100 million installed around the world, are frequently “dangerously insecure,” a security expert has said. The lack of security in the smart utilities raises the prospect of a single line of malicious code cutting power to a home or even causing a catastrophic overload leading to exploding meters or house fires, according to Netanel Rubin, co-founder of the security firm Vaultra. “Reclaim your home,” Mr. Rubin told hackers and security experts, “or someone else will.” If a hacker took control of a smart meter, they would be able to know “exactly when and how much electricity you’re using,” Mr. Rubin told the 33rd Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg. An attacker could also see if a home had any expensive electronics. “He can do billing fraud, setting your bill to whatever he likes … The scary thing is if you think about the power they have over your electricity. He will have power over all of your smart devices connected to the electricity. This will have more severe consequences: imagine you woke up to find you’d been robbed by a burglar who didn’t have to break in. “But even if you don’t have smart devices, you are still at risk. An attacker who controls the meter also controls the meter’s software, allowing him to cause it to literally explode.” Mr. Rubin said many of the warnings were not hypothetical. In 2009 Puerto Rican smart meters were hacked en masse, leading to widespread billing fraud, and in 2015 a house fire in Ontario was traced back to a faulty smart meter, although hacking was not implicated in that. Outdated protocols The problems at the heart of the insecurity stem from outdated protocols, half-hearted implementations and weak design principles. While the physical security of smart meters is strong — “trust me, I tried” to hack in that way, Mr. Rubin said — the wireless protocols many of them use are problematic. To communicate with the utility company, most smart meters use GSM, the 2G mobile standard. That has a fairly well-known weakness whereby an attacker with a fake mobile tower can cause devices to “hand over” to the fake version from the real tower, simply by providing a strong signal. In GSM, devices have to authenticate with towers, but not the other way round, allowing the fake mast to send its own commands to the meter. Worse still, said Mr. Rubin, all the meters from one utility used the same hard-coded credentials. “If an attacker gains access to one meter, it gains access to them all. It is the one key to rule them all.” Inside the home, too, the communications are rendered insecure by outdated standards and bad implementation. Almost all smart meters use the Zigbee standard to speak to other smart devices in the home. Zigbee, which dates from 2003, is a home automation standard, used for controlling everything from lightbulbs to air conditioners. But it is so convoluted, due to the vast array of devices supported, that it is almost better to think of it as 15 different standards, each of which vendors can choose to implement as they see fit. “This unique situation is so difficult to implement, vendors actually choose what they want to implement. And when they choose what to support, they more often than not skip security,” Mr. Rubin said. — The Guardian Cooper Kupp Authentic Jersey
Rs 1 lakh crore investment in solar power, green corridor on government’s energy radar for 2017
Green seems to be the catchword for the government heading into the next year as it gears up to achieve 175 gigawatt of clean energy by 2022 through auction of 1,000 MW of rooftop solar power, Rs 13,000 crore investment in solar parks and a Rs 21,000-crore package to boost local manufacturing of panels. By all yardsticks, 2016 remains a watershed year when solar tariff slumped to Rs 4 per unit and wind projects received a major thrust. The government is set to switch gears in 2017 to make India a hub for one of the largest installations of clean energy sources by 2022. Minister for New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal offered a glimpse of things to come while speaking to PTI. Scaling up of rooftop solar programme, scheme to encourage domestic manufacturing of solar panels and making wind power affordable through auction of sites all fill up a packed 2017. His ministry has in its sight Rs 1 lakh crore investment for the sector and is looking at 20 GW of power generation from non-conventional sources in 2017-18. Beginning with speeding up the tempo for solar panel installation at homes, schools and hospitals through subsidies in 2016, plans are afoot to expand the rooftop programme to government buildings by providing target-based incentives. In the November auction of 500 MW, subsidies for installation of as much as 432.7 MW of rooftop solar capacity were lapped up by 122 developers. A fresh tender for one gigawatt (1,000 MW) is now in the works. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is eyeing generation of 100 GW from solar power alone by 2022. Rooftop solar capacity almost doubled to 1,000 MW in 2016 and the aim is to take this to 40 GW. Also on the table is a green corridor to transmit 2,000 MW of power from 34 solar panels across 21 states. For good measure, Goyal said, a scheme to promote domestic manufacturing of solar panels will become a reality in 2017. The Rs 21,000-crore module aims to create 5 GW of photovoltaic manufacturing capacity by 2019 and 20 GW by 2026. India’s renewable energy generation capacity stands at 45 GW. According to Goyal, wind power is up next after successful reduction in solar tariff through transparent auction of sites. A mobility scheme is on the anvil to achieve 100 per cent electric vehicle-based transportation for India by 2030, he said without giving out specifics. Early next year, the ministry will organise Global RE- Invest 2017 India-ISA Partnership, the second edition of the bi-ennial Renewable Energy Investors Meet and Expo to bring in investors. The event will build on RE-Invest 2015 and explore the advances to help meet India’s ultimate target of adding 175 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022. The ministry is keen on fostering competition among players, particularly in the wind energy space, to bring down tariff and make it a viable source of electricity for consumers. The Global Renewable Energy Investors meet is the world’s largest renewable energy investors gathering to be organised in 2017, Goyal said. He spoke of launching renewable energy fund under the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). The ministry has been working on this USD 2-billion fund to make private players invest in the sector. In 2017-18, the government is eyeing 20,450 MW power capacity addition from renewables, including 15,000 (solar), 4,600 MW (wind), 750 MW (biomass) and 100 MW from small hydro power (of up to 25 MW). A total of 7,518 MW of grid-connected power generation capacity from renewable sources has been added this year (January to October 2016). In 2016-17, a total of 1,502 MW capacity has come on board till October-end this year, making a cumulative realisation of 28,279 MW. Now, in terms of wind power installed capacity, India is placed at the 4th rank after China, the US and Germany. As for solar power, a total of 1,750 MW capacity has been added till October-end this year, making it a cumulative 8,728 MW. After bringing solar tariff to a record low of Rs 3 per unit, the minister indicated making wind power affordable. He said, “There will be a wind auction to transparently reduce the tariff.” The government has planned solar energy from every roof in the country and there will be expansion of rooftop solar programmes next year. It has envisaged 40 GW of solar power from rooftop alone out of the total 100 GW planned to be added by 2022. This flows from the need to push rooftop solar in a big way against the backdrop of a target of 40 GW grid connected solar rooftops by 2022. So far, about 500 MW of rooftop solar has been installed and about 3,000 MW has been sanctioned for installation. All major sectors like the Railways, airport, hospitals, educational institutions, government buildings of central, state and PSUs are being targeted, besides the private sector. A massive Grid Connected Solar Rooftop Programme will be launched with 40 GW target. State Electricity Regulatory Commissions of 30 states/UTs notified regulations for net-metering and feed-in-tariff mechanism. Besides, funding of Rs 5,000 crore was approved for solar rooftops. A total sanction of USD 1,300 million has been received from the World Bank, KFW, ADB and NDB which will enable SBI, PNB, Canara Bank and IREDA to fund such projects at an interest rate of less than 10 per cent. The ministry has tied up with ISRO for geo-tagging of all the rooftop plants using ISRO’s VEDAS portal. To reduce import of solar equipment from other countries, particularly from China, the ministry is keen to encourage domestic production to meet the huge power demand. The minister said there will be focus on Make in India for solar power next year and a scheme to this effect may be launched. The government has also planned launch of founding conference of International Solar Alliance. About use of renewable in farm sector, he said, “We will focus on Prosperous Farmer — Pollution Free India. There
Gujarat government to unveil new integrated solar-wind hybrid policy
Considering the advantages of integrated solar and wind power projects, the Gujarat state government has decided to announce a new policy for such hybrid plants. It will be called Solar-Wind Hybrid Policy 2017. The government intends to invite suggestions from interested companies and other stakeholders for the proposed policy within a month. “The decision of the new policy for solar and wind hybrid projects has been taken by chief minister Vijay Rupani as the concept of such hybrid power plants has been gaining momentum off late across the country,” said an official statement from the government. Under the proposed policy, power sector players can install solar power generation units in existing wind parks and vice versa so that infrastructure utilization can be maximized. Oskar Sundqvist Jersey
Discoms recover Rs 3000 crore till mid-December post notes ban
The collection of power distribution companies across the country increased by a whopping Rs 3,000 crore post demonetization till December 15, according to government data. “Distribution companies’ collections increased by more than Rs 3,000 crore from November 10 to December 15, 2016 compared to last year,” the data showed. The Ministry is of the view that this will help achieve affordable tariffs. The Power Ministry had launched UDAY scheme for revival of the debt stressed power distribution companies last year in November. The scheme is expected to turn around these utilities by 2019, which would eventually help in increasing demand of electricity and boost the sector. According to statement, North Bihar Power Distribution Company saw a 204% increase, NESCO in Odisha saw a 251% increase, APDCL in Assam saw a 97% increase and TANGEDCO in Tamil Nadu saw a 97% increase in revenues. Besides, the power generation grew by 8.53% to 93.23 billion units (BU) in November as against 85.90 BUs in same month year ago. Rob Gronkowski Womens Jersey
No need for landowner’s nod to lay power line: Supreme Court
Removing roadblocks in reaching electricity to every village, the Supreme Court has ruled that no prior consent of landowners was required to lay overhead power transmission lines and erect towers to support these lines. Through the judgment, the SC settled the issue which gave rise to conflicting judgments from various HCs. The SC’s top priority was to enable the government and its agencies to get electricity to the last household in the remotest areas. A bench of Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi said, “It is well known that India is an energy deficient country. There are many households where lighting even an electric bulb is a dream.” The issue was filed by a cement manufacturer from Chhattisgarh and Power Grid Corporation. The cement manufacturer challenged Power Grid’s decision to erect towers for transmission lines on its limestone mine lease area without its consent. The bench said, “As per the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act, unobstructed access to lay down telegraph and/or electricity transmission lines is an imperative in the larger public interest.” Rollie Fingers Authentic Jersey