In Delhi, no power tariff revision for the first time in five years
For the first time since 2011, power tariffs won’t be revised in Delhi. The tussle between AAP government and LG’s office over the appointment of Krishna Saini as Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission chief has meant that tariffs will remain unchanged. Sources said discoms might file an appeal with the appellate tribunal, stating that the failure to revise the tariff was a violation of its guidelines and Delhi consumers could face stiff increases in the future to correct this anomaly. Tata Power Delhi recently filed a petition, seeking power purchase adjustment charges equivalent to a 2-3% hike in fuel bills for July-September 2016. BYPL and BRPL are yet to send their petitions. DERC is mandated to give discoms PPAC, according to the orders of the Appellate Tribunal of Electricity. However, it’s unclear how long it will take to process the petition. Sources said the lone DERC member, B P Singh, was passing its judicial orders, as the LG had nullified Saini’s appointment and directed AAP government to begin proceedings for hiring a new chairman. The government is yet to accept the decision and has taken the matter to court. Discoms have also made multiple representations on how static tariffs will affect them financially. They didn’t submit a PPAC in June because there wasn’t much variation in fuel costs to show. This time, they are seeking a hike, citing an increase in cost of gas and coal over the last few months. In 2011, the then Congress-led government had stopped DERC from announcing new tariffs. Bobby McCain Womens Jersey
India’s per capita electricity consumption touches 1010 kWh
In an indication of growing appetite for electricity in India, the country’s per capita electricity consumption has reached 1010 kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2014-15, compared with 957 kWh in 2013-14 and 914.41 kWh in 2012-13, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), India’s apex power sector planning body. “The per capita electricity consumption reached 1010 kWh some time back,” said a senior government official, requesting anonymity. But experts are far from enthused from the increasing consumption figure. “Per capita electricity consumption crossing 1,000 units a year is certainly a milestone, but without much significance. One-fourth of the households in the country still have no access to electricity, with some states in East and North East having less than even 30% households with (electricity) access. Most significant milestone that the nation must achieve is 100% households having 24×7 quality supply of electricity,” said Debasish Mishra, senior director, consulting, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd. India’s per capita power consumption is among the lowest in the world. Around 280 million people in the country do not have access to electricity. In comparison, China has a per capita consumption of 4,000kWh, with developed nations averaging around 15,000kWh per capita. Interestingly, while the peak shortage in the country was at 2.3% in May, many believe that the demand still looks artificially suppressed as state electricity boards (SEBs) are not buying power. SEBs have been unwilling to procure electricity because of their weak financials due to low tariffs, slow progress in reducing losses, higher power purchase costs and crippling debt. India has an installed power generation capacity of 272,503MW. A power ministry spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to queries emailed on Sunday. Meanwhile, minister for power, coal and renewable energy Piyush Goyal has maintained that the states have not been buying power. “Some state governments haven’t cooperated as much as they should… we urge them to increase it. Otherwise they would receive an appropriate response from the electorate in the coming days,” Goyal said at a press conference on 25 May. Electricity generation was the silver lining in the May index of industrial production data. Electricity output, which contracted 0.5% in April, recovered to grow 6% in May. “Of our installed capacity, only around 145,000MW is operational. While the supply curve is evident, where is the demand curve?” asked the official quoted above. India needs as much as $200 billion to meet its target of installing 100,000MW of solar power capacity and around 60,000MW of wind power capacity by 2022. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made energy security a part of its election campaign for the April-May 2014 general election. After assuming office in May, the BJP-led government launched a scheme aimed at ensuring about eight hours of quality power supply to agricultural consumers and 24-hour electricity to households. Gilbert Perreault Womens Jersey
Essar Power’s 2×600 MW Mahan plant plans to commission second unit by Q4 of FY2016-17
Essar Power MP Ltd (EPMPL), a subsidiary of Essar Power Ltd, plans to commence commercial operations from its second 600 MW unit at its 2×600 MW Mahan power project in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli district from Q4 of FY2016-17. Mahan’s Unit 1 began commercial operations in April 2013 but had to suspend generation because of the cancellation of the captive coal block by the Honourable Supreme Court, and the subsequent non-availability of coal. The Company restarted operations in May this year—following a gap of 19 months—after securing coal through government conducted special forward e-auctions. Until date, the Company has secured 22 lakh tonnes of coal through the auction route at a consideration of about Rs660 crore. In the coal block auctions conducted in 2015, EPMPL won a captive mine in Tokisud in Jharkhand state. Essar has invested over Rs 13,000 crore in the 1,200 MW Mahan plant and development of Transmission network connecting Mahan plant to National Grid, which requires an estimated 5.5 million tonnes of domestic coal per year. Of this, 2.32 million tonnes is likely to be supplied every year from the Tokisud block, which has estimated reserves of 52 million tonnes, and is expected to commence operations in 2017. EPMPL has long-term power purchase agreements with Essar Steel and the MP Government. It is trying to tie up its full capacity through additional long- and medium-term PPAs. Mr MK Sharma, COO, EPMPL: “The availability of coal throughgovernment conducted auctions has breathed new life into our project.We are currently operating Unit 1 close to full load and are confident of starting of generation from Unit 2 in next 6 months.” Mr KVB Reddy, CEO, Essar Power Ltd, said: “With a total investment of Rs 30,000 crore, Essar Power has a goal of attaining a generation capacity of 6,100 MW from its eight plants. The start of generation from the second unit will be an important milestone which shall enhance the business operating capacity to 4900 MW and would mean the completion of capex cycle for the Power Business apart from Tori project which shall be completed in FY 18-19. This shall also result in sustainable cash generation for the business and improve its ability to meet various creditor liabilities going forward.” Ryan Griffin Womens Jersey
India leads Spain, UK in wind energy generation; affordable solar panels could cause a clean energy boom
Renewable energy is an area that is expected to take off in India, thanks to the ambitious mission stated by the Ministry of New and Renewable energy. It states, “24×7 affordable environment friendly power for all by 2019.” The government also plans to generate around 40 percent of its power from non-fossil fuels by 2030. With the electronics market projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 24.4 percent between 2012-2020 and expected to reach $400bn by 2022, it is only natural that we started looking at fossil-free sources of energy. India’s per capita energy consumption has seen sustained increase over the years (from 734kWh in 2008-09 to 1075 kWh in 2015-16), but it is still the lowest among the BRICS nations. With the whole push towards putting India on the digital highway, our energy infrastructure backbone has to grow proportionately. Investing and accelerating the dependence of renewable energy source is definitely deemed to play a major role in this. Did you know, India is at the fourth position in terms of installed wind power capacity, ahead of Spain, UK, France, Canada. As on 31 October, 2016, Solar Energy Projects with an aggregate capacity of over 8727.62 MW have been installed in the country. India’s total solar capacity is 10GW and the government plans to take it to 17GW by 31 March 2017. Here are the targets of the government for renewable energy generation for the next three years. Source 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 Solar Power 12,000 15,000 16,000 Wind 4000 4600 5200 Biomass 500 750 850 SHP 225 100 100 Grand Total 16725* 20450* 22150* * Capacity in Mega Watts (Source: Press Information Bureau) Thanks to the hot weather in majority of the Indian landscape, we are in a position of advantage as far as generating solar energy is concerned. That a relatively cooler country such as Germany can generate over 35GW of solar energy, should give us enough confidence to achieve the numbers the government is looking at. Just last month, news emerged that India has the largest solar power plant at a single location (Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu) with a capacity of 648MW – which has the capacity to power 150,000 homes. In order to achieve these targets, solar panels installed capacity has to see a boost in numbers. We will need many Kamuthi-like examples across the country. A new report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) could certainly push the investments in solar energy. According to the report, solar and wind energy generation has reached the same price point or is cheaper than new fossil fuel capacity in over 30 countries. Michael Drexler, leading infrastructure and development investing at WEF has said in a statement that investing in solar and wind is not only commercially viable, but a compelling investment with long term returns. According to the WEF report, there are more political barriers rather than economic ones. “Contracts are not standardized, regulatory uncertainty remains, and financial institutions have not created an asset class with a public, standardized track record that will reassure mainstream investors,” says the report. Challenges faced One of the main challenge which is stopping solar energy generation from taking off in India has been the costs associated with solar photovoltaics, when compared to those associated with other energy generation methods (read fossil-fuel based ones). With the WEF report hinting a drop in prices, this issue should not be that great a challenge going forward. Economies of scale, innovations in technology and dropping equipment prices should bring in some correction here. Land acquisition is another concern, considering a 1MW of solar power generation requires around 5 acres of land. The government is trying to overcome this issue by earmarking dedicated solar parks across the country. “34 Solar Parks of capacity 20,000 MW in 21 states have been sanctioned which are under various stages of execution,” says an MNRE report. Evacuation of the generated solar energy is another challenge. According to this report in Livemint, Power Grid Corporation of India has been asked to have separate transmission lines to evacuate green energy. While initially there will only by inter-state transmission lines, local government are expected to distribute the energy inside their respective states. As mentioned before, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has ambitious plans. All that’s needed is a focussed approach towards overcoming the challenges mentioned above. Calle Rosen Womens Jersey
Doosan Heavy sews up India power plant orders worth $2.3bn
Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction shares rose slightly on Monday, after the South Korean company announced it had landed 2.8 trillion won ($2.3 billion) worth of thermal power plant orders from an Indian state government. Doosan Heavy shares closed at 28,150 won apiece, up 0.54%. With South Korean exporters catching a tailwind created by a weak home currency, the stock is riding a three-day winning streak that started Thursday and is nearing the one-year high of 28,700 logged on Nov. 14. The company said affiliate Doosan Power Systems India secured orders for two plants from the government of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. The Obra-C and Jawaharpur plants will each have two 660-megawatt generators, according to Doosan. “We could strike the deals thanks to our aggressive localization strategy, paying attention to the growth potential of the power market in India,” said Kim Heon-tak, head of the engineering, procurement and construction business group at Doosan. Kim added that the orders would accelerate Doosan’s expansion in the Indian thermal power market, which he said is expected to reach an annual average of 18 gigawatts by 2020. The fresh orders come two months after Doosan snagged 1 trillion won worth of power plant-related business from Saudi Arabia and 950 billion won from the Philippines. Doosan said its orders have topped 9 trillion won this year, with 5 trillion won in the fourth quarter alone. Looking at the broader South Korean market, the sliding won is buoying exporters such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and LG Display — all three of which expect their sales and profits to increase in the fourth quarter. Winners and losers The won hit 1,203 to the dollar on Friday, its weakest level in nine months. The currency has slipped by 9.23% since the end of September, from 1,101.3. Market watchers say Samsung’s quarterly operating profit increases by 500 billion won every time the currency weakens by 100. SK Hynix’s sales climb about 100 billion won when that happens. Dick Butkus Authentic Jersey
Power demand down 6% after note ban
With industrial activity slowing and an acute cash crunch in the aftermath of demonetisation, power demand is set to come down drastically. According to experts tracking the sector, peak power demand is down six per cent between September and November 2016. On a year-on-year basis, though, demand grew 11 per cent in September 2016, according to the latest data of Central Electricity Authority. With demonetisation kicking in from November 8, 2016, from medium, micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) have reduced their power demand owing to slow activity. Peak power demand deficit — the gap in power supply and demand – has also reduced owing to decline in power demand during the past month. The peak demand deficit in November was 0.6 per cent, down from one per cent in October and 1.6 per cent in September 2016. “Small enterprises are facing the brunt of cash crunch and labour shortage,” said a power sector expert, who did not wish to be identified. Agricultural power demand is also likely to go down as the current sowing season has been hit by cash crunch. The country received good monsoon this year, which was expected to boost rural demand, say experts. Several power-guzzling sectors such as automobiles, hotels and textiles have been hit by the cash crunch. While weavers and textile traders have stalled production, the auto sector is looking at one of the worst sale periods, which could affect production in the coming quarters. Commercial vehicles, and two- and three-wheelers posted a decline. This was the steepest in the past 44 months. The sector declined 7.75 per cent in March 2013. The last time the sector posted a decline was in December 2015, when volumes fell by 0.17 per cent. Exporters expect demonetisation to lead to a fall in outbound trade this month, and a greater decline in the coming months. Exporters have warned that the government’s ban on old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would lead to a production decline in the short term. Stagnant power demand forced 30 power-generating companies to reduce their coal offtake, even below their lowest permissible threshold under the respective fuel-supply agreements with Coal India. Rod Carew Womens Jersey
Electricity connection and ease of doing business: Tracking the pace of power delivery
Niti Aayog, along with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), will now be constantly reviewing the on-ground improvements in 87 cities regarding one of the most critical aspects of ‘ease of doing business’ — time taken to obtain a commercial and industrial electricity connection. The DIPP and the Niti Aayog would be collecting the above data from various states and their implementing agencies. “As a pilot, we plan to start with sourcing information related to ‘average number of days to obtain a commercial and industrial electricity connection’ for a period of six months directly from the states through their implementation agencies,” said Bibek Debroy, member, Niti Aayog, in his letter to Ramesh Abhishek, secretary, DIPP, on August 3 this year. Further, based on the response to this initiative, information related to on-ground improvements of few other parameters of ‘ease of doing business’ as listed by the World Bank, like the time taken for getting construction-related permits or labour permits, would also be sought by the Aayog from the state governments. In response to Debroy’s letter, Abhishek in his October 19 letter said: “The idea of conducting an exercise to get data regarding actual implementation of the reform in a particular area (getting electricity connection) in selected cities is commendable. We should be able to understand the ground realities through this exercise. DIPP would be happy to support the same.” According to the plan presented by Debroy in his August 3 letter, Uttar Pradesh’s seven major cities — Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Meerut, Varanasi, Moradabad and Gorakhpur — would be surveyed in the time period of six months. Five cities, each of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Gujarat would be surveyed to check the actual number of days required to take an industrial electricity connection. The days would be counted from the date of receipt of application for the connection, to the date of on-ground installation at the applicant premises. India improved its ‘ease of doing business’ ranking — released annually by the World Bank — by just one notch, to 131 from last year’s 130, despite several government measures. The latest World Bank rankings were released on October 25. The assessment for these rankings is done on the basis of ten different parameters — some of which include starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity connection, registering property and getting credit among others. India’s ranking fell in five out of ten parameters. However, the country also showed improvement in four parameters — the biggest improvement was seen in the area of ‘getting electricity’ where the ranking jumped to 26 from the last year’s 51st position. “On getting electricity, the report recognised the efforts of Tata Power in Delhi to make it faster and cheaper to obtain a connection. These efforts, combined with efforts in Mumbai last year, have allowed India to improve its rank on this indicator …,” said a government statement on October 25. The government is pushing to make India break into the top 50 of the international rankings quickly. Recently, it came out with the ‘ease of doing business’ rankings for all the states, which were based on 340 different parameters. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were jointly ranked number one in the exercise which involved The World Bank and the DIPP. Abhishek’s letter to Debroy mentioned the 340-point parameters for the states.”DIPP has developed a 340-point Business Reform Action Plan for States and Union Territories. The recommendations are spread across 10 broad parameters — access to information and transparency enablers; single window; environment registration enablers; obtaining electricity connection; availability of land, construction permit enablers; inspection reform enablers; labour regulations; online tax return filing and commercial dispute resolution.” While discussing Debroy’s letter, a DIPP official did mention in an internal note that such an exercise, of sourcing data from the states on 340-point ‘ease of doing business’ parameters, is already being done by the department. “All the critical indicators, mentioned in the letter (of Debroy) have already been taken into consideration by DIPP, and hence it would only be a repetition of the work if Niti Aayog undertakes the same exercise,” said Faiz Aq Ahmed Mumtaz, assistant secretary, DIPP. In last two years, the central government, as well as various state governments, have taken different steps to improve their ‘ease of doing business’ rankings. As reported by The Indian Express, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) itself has set the targets for various departments in relation to the steps that have to be taken to improve ‘ease of doing business’ in the country. The PMO has asked the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) to cut down the examination of consignments at ports, terminals etc to just 10 per cent of the present value through “risk-based criteria”. “CBEC will follow up with the heads of all agencies (port regulators, airport terminal operators, etc) to address the issue of bringing down number of consignments for examination to 10 per cent through risk-based criteria,” said the minutes of the meeting chaired by Nripendra Mishra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, on May 7 this year. At the same meeting, the prime Minister’s Office directed the shipping ministry to increase the share of “direct delivery” consignments at Indian ports to 40 per cent by the end of this year. Under the direct port delivery (DPD) system, the imported containers are directly delivered to the pre-approved clients, instead of waiting at container freight stations for clearance. Olli Maatta Womens Jersey
NTPC signs 160 MW PPA with Nepal Electricity Authority
State-owned NTPC today said that its wholly-owned arm NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam has signed power purchase pact with Nepal Electricity Authority to supply 160 MW power for January-May 2017. “NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN)…Has signed Power Purchase Agreement(PPA) with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) for supply of up to 160 MW power for the period January 2017 to May 2017 through Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar transmission line,” the company said in a statement. The agreement was signed by Arun Kumar Garg, CEO, NVVN and Kul Man Ghising Managing Director, NEA, the statement said. NVVN is the only government company in the power sector engaged in the business of power trading. Marc Staal Womens Jersey
New power tariff structure in works, large domestic consumers to be charged more
The burden of subsidising the power bills of agricultural and low-income families is set to move from industrial consumers to large domestic and commercial consumers of electricity. The government plans to introduce a new tariff structure to charge more from large domestic power consumers rather than industrial units that currently share the cross subsidy burden. Most states categorise households consuming more than 800 units of power a month as large domestic consumers. The government is also working on simplifying tariff patterns by classifying consumers in two to three categories and sub-categories to bring transparency in power billing. An expert committee has been set for this. It comprises senior officials from various states and the power ministry to work on the new tariff structure that encourages energy conservation by residential consumers and reduces the power bill of industrial consumers. The committee is also studying the possibility of increasing fixed charges on connected load of domestic consumers to encourage them to surrender unutilised load. Most states continue with electricity tariff structures created since their formation and are often criticised for political interventions and biases against industrial units that, despite being regular payees, are levied cross-subsidy and other charges.Domestic power consumption, on the other hand, is subsidised, though tariffs increase with consumption. Nowhere in the world except India are power consumers charged for regular payments and bulk consumption. These patterns have never been altered though tariffs have changed over the years. In fact, most countries give sops to industrial consumers onhigher power consumption, a top government official said, not wanting to be identified. Encouraging industrial units to increase power usage is the need of the hour since India has moved away from being a power-deficit country to a power-surplus country, said a senior official in the power ministry, who too did want to be named.Industrial units can absorb the excess generation capacity of power plants operating at about 60% of capacity due to lack of demand from distribution utilities and an ongoing economic slowdown. The utilisation of thermal power plants may fall to 48% by 2022 as the government plans to add 175 GW of renewable energy capacity and 50 GW of new power projects in the pipeline. The Electricity Act, 2003, enabled industrial consumers to choose their sources of power through open access. States initially implemented the reform with enthusiasm but later started imposing financial and non financial barriers on industries to discourage them from purchasing electricity from sources other than their distribution utilities. The Economic Survey 2015-16 highlighted the need for progressive tariff schedules for domestic consumers through which charges for the poor could be reduced and burden on industrial units eased. It said high-cost and low-quality power supply is rendering the units uncompetitive affecting the government’s aim to make India a global manufacturing hub. The report said compared to other developing countries, India’s domestic power tariff schedules have greater scope for progressivity. Increase in tariffs for rich households can be achieved while maintaining or reducing tariffs for the poor. It said regulators should undertake broad welfare analysis while deciding on tariff schedules and cross subsidisation rate for different categories. Patrick Maroon Authentic Jersey
Rajasthan exempts electricity duty for solar rooftop units to encourage renewables
In what would further encourage investments in renewable energy projects, the state government has exempted electricity duty of 40 paise per unit for rooftop solar and captive units. The decision is expected to help Rajasthan reach closer to 2300 MW rooftop solar capacity by 2022, a target given to it by the Centre. The duty cut is expected to have a positive impact on the new capacity lined up. Recently, Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation (RREC) issued rate contract order for 25 MW rooftop plants and empaneled companies to design, supply and install these projects. People interested to put up rooftop plants can reach these vendors who are also required to guarantee 5 years of maintenance. “These projects enjoy a subsidy of 30% provided by the government. Capacity of these plants vary from 1 kWh to 500 kWh. The 2300 MW target given to Rajasthan by the Centre for solar rooftop is steep, but we have all the necessary policies in place to achieve that,” said B K Doshi, managing director, RREC. He said tenders for another 5 MW has been issued on Friday and the projects will be come up on the government buildings in the divisional headquarters of the state. “We have adopted Resco model for the 5 MW under which the consumer can install a solar power plant and not pay anything upfront. A power purchase agreement is signed between the installer and the consumer. The installing company will make the investment and the consumer will pay for the power,” added Doshi. Rooftop has received a fillip after the Rajasthan announced net-metering policy by which an individual can use the power he o r she generates and the surplus can be fed into the discom’s grid. The state already has an installed rooftop capacity of 47 MW. “The duty exemption will create a lot of momentum in the rooftop segment by encouraging individuals and institutions to set up their own plants. They can actually cut down on power costs while contributing to the green energy,” said Sunil Bansal, promoter of city-based Diwakar Renewable & Infra Pvt Ltd. Trevor Daley Womens Jersey