Floating Solar power plant on Narmada branch canal near Sanand…

Earlier this year, Tata power partnered with Sunengy, Australia to build the first floating solar plant in India. The construction of the pilot plant in India is expected to commence in August 2011.

The Punjab government in June this year approved the setting up of a project which will generate solar power by utilizing the space over irrigation canals in the state.

 

According to reports, Sanad is now gearing up to house yet another first-of-its-kind project – a solar power plant to be built on Narmada branch canal passing through the town.

As part of a novel concept mooted by the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, the Gujarat government has decided to install solar power panels on one km stretch of Narmada branch canal near Sanand.

“To be developed on public private partnership (PPP) model, the solar plant on Narmada branch canal would generate one Mw of power, once fully operational,” said a top government official.

Interestingly, the solar project is expected to save 100,000 litres of water a year by reducing evaporation of canal water in that particular stretch of one km. The entire stretch would be covered by solar panels, thereby reducing evaporation of water.

As per the industry estimates, a 1 Mw solar power project roughly requires five acres of land. “Installation of solar panels on river canals would also take care of land issue for solar power project,” the government official added. The state government has already roped in one of the leading companies in solar energy space. SunEdison, a subsidiary of US-based global solar energy player MEMC, will be executing the project near Sanand. “This is for the first time such a project is being developed in India,” said a senior official of SunEdison.

The state government has already cleared the project and a new company is being floated to develop the project. “There are different concepts being developed for solar power generation. Developing a solar power generation facility on the water canals is one of such concepts. But for any such effort, first of all a feasibility study needs to be carried out as it is entirely a different ball-game than the existing projects being developed in India,” says Pranav Mehta, founder chairman of Solar Energy Association.

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Rel Infra, Tata Power gain on tariff hike news…

Delhi power regulator cleared 22% tariff hike w.e.f. September 1. The last tariff hike in Delhi was made in 2009.

Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Power together control nearly 90% of Delhi power market.

Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Power shares gained substantially post announcement.

At 11:53 hrs Reliance Infrastructure was quoting at Rs 432.50, up Rs 15.80, or 3.79%. It touched an intraday high of Rs 437.80 and an intraday low of Rs 425. It was trading with volumes of 120,579 shares

At 11:53 hrs Tata Power Company was quoting at Rs 1,034.25, up Rs 21.80, or 2.15%. It touched an intraday high of Rs 1,043.90 and an intraday low of Rs 1,017. It was trading with volumes of 9,055 shares

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Coal India offers 447 MT of coal to power utilities…

Coal India Limited has offered to supply 447 million tonnes of coal to Power Utilities in 2011-12 subject to availability of wagons by the Railways at an average of 190.4 rakes per day during the year.

This information was given by Minister of State in the ministry of Coal,Shri Pratik Prakashbapu Patil in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

The minister informed the house that 216 coal blocks with geological reserves of about 50 billion tones have been allocated to eligible public and private companies under the Coal Mines (Nationalization) Act, 1973. Out of that, 24 coal blocks have been de-allocated. Out of de-allocated coal blocks, two coal blocks were re-allocated to eligible companies under the said Act.

In view of the above, the net allocated blocks are 194 coal blocks with geological reserves of about 44.44 billion tones. Out of these 28 coal blocks have come into production. The rest of the blocks are in various stages of development. Development of coal blocks involves gestation period of 3 to 7 years for reaching the production stage and another two to three years for reaching the optimal production capacity.

The major constraints being faced by the allocates are i) delay in setting up end use projects and ii) time taken for obtaining various clearances for mining and land acquisition.

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Tata BP Solar commissions 1 MW Solar PV Project…

According to reports, Tata BP Solar India, a joint venture of Tata Power and BP Solar, on Monday, said it has commissioned its first 1 megawatt (mw) solar photovoltaic power plant in Orissa under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).

The project, owned and developed by S. N. Mohanty at Cuttack in Orissa, was synchronized to the grid on 23 August, the company said in a statement issued here. “Tata BP Solar as an engineering, procurement and construction contractor in association with S. N. Mohanty is very proud in bringing about this first solar photovoltaic plant in Orissa,” the company’s chief executive officer, K. Subramanya, said.

The project, which is designed to run for 25 years, uses 4,400 crystalline silicon modules of 230 Watts each spread out over an area of 5 acres, which will generate electric current when solar radiation falls on them, the release said. The solar power plant is expected to generate 1.41 million units of electricity in the first year.

Tata BP Solar has also taken the contract to provide the operation and maintenance services to the plant for the first 10 years after commissioning, it said.

Mohanty has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Orissa State Electricity Board for 25 years to supply this power to them.

Tata BP Solar is currently executing projects in different parts of India including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand under the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) run scheme.

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China to fast track India’s Hydel Projects development ! ! !

While the title of this post seems illogical and surprising at times; the same is becoming a reality now-a-days. With the China factor looming large, the Centre is desperately pushing the Arunachal Pradesh Government to expedite the development of storage hydroelectric projects on the Brahmaputra.

According to reports, China is planning to construct world’s largest hydro-electric project on river Brahmaputra after its own another largest hydro-electric project; Three Gorges Dam.   The proposed project is being constructed on the upper reaches of the river involving the setting up of a massive dam on the bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo — the Tibetan name for the Brahmaputra.

This will force India to speed up its own hydro projects on Brahmaputra to create a strong bargaining position to detract China from building mega hydel projects on the upper reaches of the river.

So far, India's success rate on this front has been dismal. Projects such as the 3,000-MW Dibang have been stuck for over three years now. Just two projects — NEEPCO's 600 MW Kameng and NHPC's 2,000 MW Lower Subhansiri — have a realistic change of coming up on the Brahmaputra over the next six years.

Even as NTPC Ltd has been roped in to prepare a feasibility study for a proposed 9,750-MW Siang Upper hydroelectric project, analysts are sceptical of how fast things can move.

Road and rail links, a prerequisite for transporting equipment to project sites, are lacking desperately. A key transmission link that was to come up for strengthening linkages with the North-Easter during the current Plan period is still held up for funds.

Additionally, the stated position of the Arunachal Government to avoid storage projects involving big dams is a hurdle.

The Ministry of Power has recently stated before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy that it is trying hard to convince the Arunachal Government on the need for storage projects, officials said.

According to Dr. Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Strategic Studies, Centre for Policy Research

“If India harnesses the Brahmaputra in Arunachal through the proposed projects, it will strengthen its case against China's building of a mega-dam at Metog. But, it will have to do it before China does its project. Under the doctrine of prior appropriation, a priority right falls on the first user of river waters,”

The Tsangpo river flows through 1,625 km in Tibet, and then enters Arunachal Pradesh, where it is known as the Siang. Further down, the Siang — after its confluence with the Dibang and Lohit — is known as the Brahmaputra.

India is thus, on the downstream side of all the developments being planned in China on the river.

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Solar Tariff… Need of re-evaluation ! ! !

Spark feels a need of re-evaluation of the preferential tariff given to the solar power generation by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC)  from regions with less exposure to the sun’s radiation.

According to Spark,  it is illogical to follow a single feed-in-tariff (FIT) concept when it comes to setting up solar power plants. Developed countries such as Germany and the US, wherein Solar Power development is at advanced stage, have multiple tariff system based on the exposure of a particular region to solar radiation. The same policy should be adopted in India.

Similar kind of tariff mechanism is already proposed by CERC and in implementation in various states (such as Maharashtra) for Wind Power Projects wherein the tariff has been declared zone wise which is classified in terms of wind resources.

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), CERC has set the tariff at Rs 17.90 per kilowattt hour (kWh) for solar photo voltaic projects and Rs 15.40 per kWh for solar thermal projects. It reviews the cost every year and fixes the tariff accordingly for new projects.

The aim is to install 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022 with the first phase contributing 1000 MW by 2013.

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Anna shock for NTPC…

NTPC’s Farakka power project today hit the Anna hurdle as the company had to cancel the commercial production of its new Unit-VI set up at a cost of Rs 2,570 crore.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde were supposed to flag off the 500MW unit but they could not come because of an extended session in Parliament today on the Anna impasse.

Till late on Saturday evening, all parties were trying to find a way out of the Lokpal jigsaw.

NTPC officials will take a decision on when to start the production within 15 days.

The delay in starting the unit, from which Bengal will be getting 147MW, may affect power supply in the state. Two other eastern states — Bihar and Jharkhand — will get 50.5MW and 32.5MW, respectively.

“We had initially demanded that 500MW should be available to us for merchant trading. But we were not allowed. As of now, 75MW from the new unit will remain unallocated,” said S.P. Singh, director (HR), NTPC.

The new unit will raise Farakka power station’s capacity to 2,100MW from 1,600MW.

NTPC also hopes that from 2013 there will be no drop in power generation from Farakka because of low availability of water from the Ganges during summer.

“The water shortage was acute in 2001-02. Then we thought of having a river-bed pump house project to ensure sufficient water supply for the lean period,” said U.P. Pani, executive director, (eastern region 1), NTPC.

The new unit, however, has its dedicated cooling system and will not be affected by the availability of water from the feeder canal.

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UP signs 600 MW PPA with Gujarat & Adani Power…

 According to reports the Uttar Pradesh Government has entered into a year-long power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Gujarat government and a private utility Adani Power for 600 MW of electricity.

The UP Government’s move of one year PPA seems for political gains as state elections are to be held next year, but it has also helped narrow the demand-supply gap.

 

As per a report of the Central Electricity Authority

, the state received 6,028 MW of power in June against a requirement of 6,564 MW.

 
The PPA comes at a time when Gujarat is facing a problem of plenty in terms of signing the PPA for its own consumption (Read Here). There are few takers for its 3,000 MW of surplus power, which is set to double in the coming months as private power producers add capacity.

Adani Power's average realization dipped to as low as 2.82 a unit in the first quarter of the current fiscal, as against 3.36 in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Under the PPA, it will get 4.70 for every unit sold, including transmission charges.

 
Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, is one of the largest buyers of power in bilateral trade and power exchanges. According to the data published by the Power Exchanges (Indian Energy Exchange and Power Exchange of India), it also pays one of the highest tariffs in the country to procure it. In May, the state accounted for 20% of bilateral power trade, against only 3.8% in 2010 and 5.5% in 2009.

This politics-power nexus may prove to be a bonanza for voters, some of whom may be reluctant to pay a higher price for electricity, but it has its down side: It hampers effective check on power theft and slows down privatization of power distribution. This explains why Gujarat-based Torrent Power will have to wait longer to take over Kanpur's electricity distribution network.

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