Monsoon shortage might effect power generation in Kerala
A drastic shortage in monsoon rainfall and subsequent fall in inflow to dams, the lowest in the last 10 years, is likely to affect power generation in Kerala, state government said today. “There has been a drastic drop in rainfall this monsoon compared to previous years, due to which only 58 per cent of water inflow than expected has been received in dams for power generation. This is the lowest inflow to dams in the last 10 years,” Power Minister Kadakampally Surendran said here. As this would effect power generation, the state has already taken steps to purchase 150 MW to overcome the anticipated shortage, he said, replying to the debate for grants for power department in the assembly. The minister said the government’s objective in the power sector was to have all houses electrified by March 2017. A Rs 10,000 crore project TransGrid-2 will be implemented to modernise transmission lines using the latest technology. Funds for the purpose would be made available from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board, he said. Besides, it was also planned to set up 400 KV sub-stations and 24 220 KV sub-stations in next five years. Government’s objective was to make Kerala self-sufficient in power in the next five years, he said, adding that the Centre’s new power policy meant that the state cannot expect more electricity from the Central power grid. As a first step, work of the now defunct power generation projects would be revived, he said adding nearly 300 MW additional power would be generated in the coming years. On conventional power generation, he said steps would be taken to complete a 50 MW project in the first phase in one year, which is being taken up as part of the 200 MW solar power park at Kasargod. Tender process for purchase of additional 200 MW solar power also was in the final stages, he added. Trevor Linden Authentic Jersey
Coal shortage over, UP overcomes power crisis
The UP government on Monday claimed of having overcome the power crisis orginated out of coal shortage at its 2,420 Mw Anpara power plant. The UP Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam (UPRVUN) said that but for one unit of 500 Mw, all other six units have started working. Managaing director, UPRVUNL, AP Mishra said only unit number 7 of 500 Mw is shut down, while the rest have been fired up and synchronized with the grid. He said that the seventh unit too will start by Tuesday evening. The shortage of coal at the state owned power plant had partially derailed the power supply to the state. While the demand has been to the tune of around 15000 Mw, the state was in the position to wheel in around 12000 Mw leaving a gap of around 3000 Mw. The shortage had forced the state government to resort to rostering, not only in the rural but also urban areas. Marshall Faulk Authentic Jersey
Industry bears cost of keeping power tariffs low for households; here’s why regulators want to stop that
Several state electricity regulators have sought an overhaul of the current subsidy regime in the power sector where industrial consumers bear the cost of keeping tariffs low for households and the farm sector. Regulators point out that in any market, bulk consumers get higher discounts than others and what’s being followed in the power sector is a distorted system that needs to be corrected. They also want the state governments and discoms to inform them of the subsidy levels they need to maintain for chosen consumers in time for the tariff revisions. “The government needs to introduce direct benefit transfer for underprivileged consumers rather than cross-subsidising their tariff,” Desh Deepak Verma, chairman of Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC), said. He added that discoms often find it futile to install meters for consumers where the tariff is fixed irrespective of consumptions. This creates an opaque system where point of theft or pilferage and its quantum is never known, he said. power Existing and former state power regulators who FE spoke to also picked holes in the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), which is being implemented at the behest of the Centre to improve discoms’ financial health. Admitting that the scheme was better than the ones in 2012 and in early 2000s, the regulators reckon that it would end up rescuing banks rather than solve problems faced by discoms. In November last year, the Union government unveiled the UDAY scheme to revive discoms’ financial health by reducing debt and mandating strict efficiency improvements milestones. Under the scheme, the states are supposed to progressively take over three-quarters of the debt and issue bonds against it. This is intended to bring down the interest cost of the discoms by 3-4 percentage points. So far, 16 states have signed up for the scheme. “The scheme is aimed mostly at ensuring that banks that have lent to discoms get their money back, but doesn’t address the root cause of discoms’ continued dismal performance,” Verma said. His sentiments were echoed by West Bengal electricity regulatory commission chairman Rabindra Nath Sen and former chairman of CERC Pramod Deo. “Although West Bengal is not a signatory to UDAY, the scheme is only marginally better than previous such schemes where discoms were subjected to financial restructuring, but didn’t yield desired results,” Sen said. He added that introducing competition into the working of discoms was the only reform that can ensure operational efficiency. “West Bengal’s distribution companies are in a relatively better shape because of the presence of private operators and competition even among state-owned ones,” Sen said. UPERC’s Verma also lamented the lack of competition among discoms. He said while complete privatisation wasn’t an ideal solution politically, even franchisee model of power distribution has had limited success because of discoms’ interference out of fear of losing their turf. “Electricity Act, 2003, mandates unbundling of state-owned power companies to bring about accountability to different arms of the sector and also to introduce competition. However, many states have worked to defeat the purpose by creating an umbrella organisation like UP Power Corp, in case of Uttar Pradesh, which takes all the decision of various discoms,” Verma added. Sean Kuraly Womens Jersey
NHPC wants to give BYPL’s share to two other discoms
Trouble seems to be mounting for the BSES discoms. National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) has petitioned Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) for reallocation of BSES Yamuna’s share of power (117.04MW) to the other discoms – BSES Rajdhani and Tata Power. If they do not take it, then DERC should declare this power as surplus. The matter was heard weeks ago. “The petitioner, NHPC, submitted that BYPL has not been paying its energy bills. The power purchase agreements have a condition that letter of credit (LC) of 105% of average monthly billing for the preceding 12 months should be provided by the beneficiary. The LC of BYPL was effective till March 31, 2014 after which it did not renew it,” said an official. While the issue was under deliberation in DERC, NHPC on June 22, 2016 proposed that the entire power from NHPC allocated to BYPL may be re-allocated to BRPL. “BYPL, citing financial hardship, allowed temporary reassignment of its allocated power from NHPC to BRPL till March 31, 2018,” said an official. In August, DERC decided that the entire 117.04MW of power will be temporarily reassigned to BRPL from July 13, 2016 till March 31, 2018. Tim Schaller Womens Jersey
Meghalaya to stand guarantor for cash-strapped power company
Meghalaya will stand guarantor for its cash-strapped power company to enable it raise a loan of over Rs 496 crore to pay its outstandings. The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) owes the money to the state-owned North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (Neepco). “We have decided to act as a guarantor of the corporation to avail loans of over Rs 496 crore for paying the dues it owes to Neepco. The total amount to be paid is Rs 496.32 crore, including a surcharge amount of Rs 98.44 crore,” Chief Minister Mukul Sangma told journalists on Friday night after the cabinet approved the proposal. The loan would be taken from the Power Finance Corporation (PFC). Moreover, Sangma informed that the cabinet also directed the Finance and Power departments to come up with measures for MeECL to realise its nearly Rs 344 crore outstanding from consumers.”The MeECL is yet to recover outstanding dues worth nearly Rs 344 crore from the consumers in the state,” he said Meghalaya owes Neepco and central generating stations — National Hydro-electric Power Corporation, National Thermal Power Corporation, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited and others, a total due of Rs 767 crore. For Neepco alone, Meghalaya owes a total due, including surcharge, of around Rs 715 crore. However, the Chief Minister said 60 per cent of the surcharge is expected to be waived off. Sangma said the state finance and power departments have been asked to work out plans to ensure that the corporation adopts systems that enable it function in an efficient and effective manner. The state witnesses daily outages after the water level at Umiam reservoir dropped due to scanty rainfall. Meghalaya has vast hydro-potential of around 3,000 MW, but there are delays in planning and execution. The state’s power availability is 358 MW against a demand of over 600 MW. Ben Harpur Jersey
UDAY a success: India’s power distribution system shows clear signs of revival
India’s power distribution system is showing concrete signs of revival and lower operational losses as chronically inefficient states have significantly narrowed the gap between cost and revenue, reduced unmetered supply and are planning large bond issues in 10 days. Officials say of the 16 states part of the Centre’s distribution utility revival scheme-—Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojna (UDAY) —at least eight have a lower gap between their average cost of electricity supply and average cost of realisation. According to one official, Uttar Pradesh distribution companies are set to launch state-government guarantee-backed bond issue worth Rs 5,000 crore starting October 6 to meet operational requirements. Rajasthan distribution utilities are also likely to raise working capital funds through bond issues in the next 10 days. Provisional data shows that the gap in Uttar Pradesh distribution utilities declined by over 65% to Rs 0.41 per unit for the year ended March 16 against Rs 1.17 per unit as on March last year. The difference between cost of supply of electricity in Haryana reduced by half to Rs 0.23 per unit in March from Rs 0.65 per unit a year ago, said the official quoted above. Discoms of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand have reduced the shortfall in revenue, but distribution companies of Punjab and Karnataka reported an increase in their losses. Twelve of the 16 states showed reduction in aggregate commercial and technical electricity losses that go unmetered. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are some of the states that showed decline in distribution losses. Preliminary data being compiled by the Union power ministry to launch a mobile application for monitoring implementation of Uday also shows that 13 of the 16 states have filed tariff revision petitions for 2016-17 with their respective state electricity regulatory commissions. The Union Power Ministry’s website and mobile app to monitor progress of UDAY will have data fed by state power distribution companies on 14 operational and financial parameters. The application will also rate the state power distribution system on the progress made by them against commitments made during signing of Uday agreements. As per provisional data available with the power ministry, Haryana, Gujarat, Bihar, Punjab and Rajasthan, have fulfilled 30-45% of the commitments made under UDAY. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand need improvement with below 30% progress while Jammu & Kashmir lags far behind delivering just 15% of the promises made under UDAY. The 14 parameters on which state distribution companies implementing UDAY are being measured include reduction in technical and commercial losses, reduction in gap between per unit cost of power supply and realisation, household electrification, urban and rural feeder metering, smart metering, profit and loss accounts and the distribution of LED lights. Marshall Faulk Jersey
Bengal’s ‘light-for-all’ project enters the last mile
Even as Bengal gives finishing touches to its 100% electrification drive, power department officials have given up on 72 villages. Spread over Burdwan, Nadia and Murshidabad, residents of these villages will continue to live in the dark even as the ‘Sabar Ghare Alo’ (Light in every home) project makes a concerted effort to light up 6 lakh households that are outside the electricity loop. Sources in the power department said the state would miss the 100% electrification target by a whisker as the 72-odd villages located on sand bars in Burdwan, Nadia and Murshidabad were economically unviable to be connected to the grid. “In some cases, it may entail an expense of over Rs 1 crore to provide connection to a few dozen households,” an official of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd (WBSEDCL) said. Sources said a separate programme could be taken up later to provide solar electricity to these mid-river villages. In the rest of the state, the programme will most certainly overshoot the deadline with challenges in connecting remote islands in the Sunderbans in North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas and enclaves in Cooch Behar. The 51 enclaves that were exchanged with neighbouring Bangladesh last year pose a challenge. Ryan Anderson Womens Jersey
Power ministry special secretary may get REC’s charge too
Power ministry special secretary BP Pandey is likely to get additional charge of state-run Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), which drives the government’s flagship household electrification programme. Pandey will take over from Rajeev Sharma, who on Saturday became chairman and managing director of Power Finance Corporation. An announcement giving Pandey additional charge of REC is likely to be made on Monday, sources in the power ministry said. The development comes at a time when the government has decided to step up its electrification drive that aims to provide electricity connections to all Indian citizens by December 2018 and make power available 24×7 to all by March 2019, ahead of the earlier target of March 2022. Quinton Spain Authentic Jersey
Essar Power commissions 60 Mw power unit at Paradip
Essar Power Ltd (EPoL), part of the $27 billion Essar Group, today announced it has commissioned a 60 MW unit comprising the first phase of its 120 Megawatt Paradip power plant. The company’s total installed capacity now stands at 4,705 MW. The 120 Mw imported coal-based power project at Paradip in Odisha, is developed by Essar Power Orissa Limited which is a subsidiary of EPoL. This has been set up as a captive power plant to meet the requirements of Essar Steel India’s 12 million tonne pellet plant in Odisha. The facility comprises a pellet plant at Paradip and a beneficiation plant at Dabuna, which are connected through a 253-km slurry pipeline. “Our focus is on completing all our under construction projects in the quickest possible time and achieve our stated target of operationalising 6,100 MW so that we can fully leverage on efficiencies of scale. With that goal in mind, the completion of Phase I of the Paradip project is an important milestone that we are delighted to reach,” KVB Reddy, Chief Executive at EPoL, said. The company claims the project uses technology that cuts down emissions. The boiler is designed to use both domestic as well as imported coal. With the commissioning of the second unit, Essar Steel will be able to further reduce its power bill and enhance its competitive edge, the company said in a statement. Essar Power Ltd is among the largest private sector power producers. It owns power plants in India and Canada with a total generation capacity of 6,100 Mw. Of this, 4,705 Mw is operational. Of the total operational capacity, 3,105 Mw is coal-based while 1,600 Mw is gas-based. The operating plants in India are at Mahan, Hazira, Salaya, Vadinar and Paradip. Also, a 1,200 Mw plant at Tori in Jharkhand is under development. Dion Lewis Womens Jersey
NTPC faces upto 30 per cent cut in fuel cost recovery on Regulatory hurdles
State-owned power generator NTPC Ltd is facing a significant hit to its fuel cost recovery on generation for the five year period 2015-19 on account of unfavourable regulatory tariff orders passed by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC). The Energy Charge Rate (ECR) approved by CERC is lower in the range of 20 per cent to 31 per cent than what was sought by NTPC. The difference in the ECR is due to the change in the basis for measurement of the gross calorific value (GCV) of coal to ‘as-received” as against “as fired” basis,” ratings agency India Ratings and Research said in a note. The orders so far passed by CERC cover only around 7,000 Megawatt capacity. Adding to the firm’s woes, the commission is likely to follow the same principle for the rest of NTPC’s plants leading to large differences in fuel cost recovery. “However, India Ratings expects NTPC to contest the same through regulatory process and initiate steps to install the infrastructure for measurement of coal GCV on “as received” basis. There is also a possibility of a dialogue between NTPC and Coal India (CIL) to resolve differences over coal grade slippages. According to CERC’s tariff regulations for the period 2014-2019, coal Gross Calorific Value (GCV) has to be measured at the point of unloading the coal at the power station gate, referred to “as-received” basis as compared to the earlier regulations which allowed measurement of coal GCV at the point before coal is fired, referred to “as-fired” basis. Read More: NHPC in pact with Rajasthan govt, Inox for wind project In its petition to CERC, NTPC had been highlighting the lack of infrastructure at its plants as the reason for its inability to measure coal GCV on “as-received” basis. Therefore, CERC, in the absence of data on “as-received” basis, has now considered the GCV on “as-billed” basis while arriving at the ECR leading to the consideration of a higher GCV rate. The regulator had decided to shift to the “as-received” basis of GCV measurement so that the generating company bears the inefficiencies post unloading of the coal and to ensure the generating company takes up the coal grade slippage with the coal supplier company and resolve it. NTPC had been highlighting problems regarding the measurement of GCV on “as-received” basis and was seeking “as-fired” basis on multiple grounds — coal samples taken after crushing for firing are of small and homogenous size compared to samples taken from wagons which are big and heterogeneous. Also, sample collection time from wagons is longer leading to demurrage charges and safety for personnel is better when samples are taken after crushing. Finally, samples taken from the wagons may not accurately represent coal quality because often good quality coal could be loaded at the top and superficial layers become dry during the transportation while the moisture percolates inside the wagons to the lower layers. Experts say the difference between the GCV on “as-received” and “as-fired” basis is governed by the ambient temperature, type of coal and duration for which coal is stored. According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA), heat loss during this time should not be more than 0.1 per cent in GCV value, which is in line with international studies. However, in this case the difference between the GCV of the coal works out to 20 per cent to 31 per cent. India Ratings noted that NTPC has been contesting the GCV calculation and had been highlighting the grade slippages in the quality of coal. “The grade slippage discussion between CIL and NTPC has become more visible post the January 2012 change in coal grading methodology to GCV-based grading from the earlier used heat value based system of grading,” it said. NTPC over the last two years has seen tightening of operational norms including the station heat rate, specific consumption and auxiliary consumption, change in the basis for providing the capacity charge incentives to plant load factor instead of plant availability factor and lower tax arbitrage. These factors have had a negative impact on the company’s profitability. Jonas Siegenthaler Womens Jersey