The government-owned transmission and distribution companies on Wednesday announced that they are going to pump in Rs 1,000 crore in Gurgaon to augment electricity infrastructure in the near future.
The discom, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam ( DHBVN), claimed that currently, the city is not experiencing any scheduled outages due to increased availability of power.
We are taking more steps to upgrade the power distribution infrastructure and improve the situation, said S S Yadav, chief engineer, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam, while addressing a conclave on Reducing hardship due to power cuts organized by the Independent Power Producers Associations (IPPAI) in the city on Wednesday.
He added that the discom and the transmission company, Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam ( HVPN), have a tough task to meet the increasing power demands of the city.
Yadav added that initiatives are being taken to bring relief to consumers not just by adding to the generation capacity but also by investing substantially in the infrastructure.
Later in the day, a spokesperson of the discom said that 27 new substations having a total transmission capacity of 1600 mva are being added to the system. Out of this, 10 substations, including two of 220 KV and eight of 66 KV and 33 KV, have already been commissioned, the spokesperson said.
He added that with the completion of this short-term plan, under execution, the total capacity of the system at the levels of 66 KV and 33 KV would increase to 2292.5 mva against the expected demand of 1994 mva. Thus, there would be a surplus capacity of 298.5 mva, the official claimed.
The discom officials said that power consumption in Gurgaon has increased from 80 lakh units per day (five years ago) to 135 lakh units per day and it is likely to increase to 250 lakh units per day in the next five years.
The rapid urbanization and industrialization of Gurgaon have necessitated the creation of mammoth power transmission and distribution infrastructure. The power companies are fully aware of it and taking the base as current demand, pending connections and rate of growth of load as 15 per cent, they have envisaged this plan to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system in Gurgaon, officials said.
Meanwhile, the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) chairman Bhaskar Chaterjee told a gathering at the IPPAI seminar that the future looks bright since the state has made remarkable progress in adding power to its grid. The way things are progressing, we can hope that in the next two years, Haryana will be self-sufficient with power, he hoped.
But it seems like that in the next two months, the power watchdog of the state, Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission is likely to consider the proposal for another tariff hike.
November 28, 2010
State to pump Rs 1000 cr into power sector,
November 10, 2010
Thermax acquires Danish boiler making co, arm for Rs 1.8 billion - Deal to help establish presence in Europe, leverage green tech
- The Pune-based energy, water and environment solutions provider Thermax Ltd has made its first overseas acquisition with the buy-out of Danish boiler manufacturing company Danstoker A.S. and its German subsidiary Omnical Kessel for ?29.5 million (Rs 180 crore). The deal, which involves takeover of two manufacturing facilities including land, in Germany and Denmark, and a staff of 237 employees, is being financed to the extent of ?20 million through Thermax's reserves. The remaining amount has been raised as a loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
- "The company makes products similar to what Thermax produces, and earns over 50 per cent of its current revenue from environment-friendly products. The acquisition fits into our green strategy, and will help us leverage the renewable energy movement in Europe," Mr M.S. Unnikrishnan, Managing Director, Thermax, said. With annual sales of ?40 million, core products in the range of 200-1,00,000 kg of steam an hour, and brand recognition in the Nordic countries, Germany, the UK, France and Russia, Danstoker and Omnical will help Thermax establish its presence in these regions and expand the clean-energy footprint in global markets. "We will keep both the brand names undiluted at this point. The Thermax name, we'll take forward at some point later," Mr Unnikrishnan clarified.
- Currently, the consolidated manufacturing capacity in the two newly acquired plants is between 350-450 units a year. "There is almost total capacity utilisation at Denmark, and 50 per cent in Germany which specialises in boilers using oil, gas and bio-mass, so there is more potential there," he said, adding that expansion to double the current installed capacity was possible with small investment. Thermax already has a wide, well established supplier base in India and will also consider sourcing from here if technical standards are met, he added.
AES plans $15bn spending spree in India to raise power generation capacity - Targets 10 pc of revenue from South Asian nation in 5 years
- AES, the US utility with operations in 29 countries, plans to spend as much as $15bn to increase capacity in India and get 10 per cent of its revenue from the South Asian nation in five years. "A big part of that would be financed by banks," Chief Executive Officer Paul Hanrahan said in an interview in New Delhi, reported Bloomberg. "The equity piece would be about $4bn to $5bn." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government plans to tap private investments as it plans to double infrastructure spending in India to $1 trn in the five years ending 2017. Asia's second-biggest energy consumer is adding electricity- generation capacity to reduce blackouts and fuel an economy that grew at the fastest pace in more than two years in the three months ended 30 June.
- AES, based in Arlington, Virginia, is looking for partners to build plants with a combined capacity of as much as 10 GW. The utility may sell shares in its Indian unit in three to four years to fund these projects, Hanrahan said. The company currently owns 49 per cent in a 420 MW power plant in Orissa state with the local government holding the rest. The Orissa plant's capacity will be increased by 1300 MW by 2014 and another 1300 MW three years after that, Hanrahan said. AES has been awarded the rights to build a 1200 MW plant in Chhattisgarh state, he said.
AP, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra succeed in forcing Reliance to change its decision to reduce power distribution to them
- Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra - have succeeded in forcing Reliance to change its decision to reduce power distribution to them from the Krishnapatnam Ultra Mega Power Project near Nellore. Earlier, Reliance had informed that it could only supply them 3,740 mw with a change of machinery design. The above mentioned four states objected to this and complained to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, charging Reliance with unilaterally reducing power allotments. Now, in a formula decided by the Centre, Reliance has consented to supply 4,000 mw power to these four states. Bowing to pressure from all quarters, Reliance Krishnapatnam UMPP has agreed to maintain energy neutrality so that all four southern states will get 4,000 mw power.
- In a meeting between representatives of these four states and Reliance Coastal Power Limited (SPV of Krishnapatnam UMPP) it was decided to run the plant at 82.5 plant load factor to give full energy to all power-sharing states. At the same time, Reliance agreed not to claim incentive for higher PLF. Now, the agreement has been placed before CERC for its approval. "With this our state will get about 1,600 mw power from this UMPP," said a senior APTransco official. The state would have lost about 120 mw power had the Reliance plan to reduce overall generation been accepted.
Power Grid to shutdown its 50:50 joint venture power transmission consultancy business with IL&FS
- Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) said it has decided to shutdown its 50:50 joint venture power transmission consultancy business with IL&FS. "We have decided to make Powergrid IL&FS Transmission Private Ltd (PIPTL) a defunct company and have already filed an application with the RoC to allow us to declare it as a defunct company," PGCIL Director, Mr I S Jha said when asked. Declining to be identified, sources said the company, which is the third largest transmission company in the country, did not find the expertise provided by IL&FS to the consultancy business up to the mark and accordingly, decided to end the JV. PIPTL wa s formed just two years ago, in 2008. Revenue from the consultancy business accounts for 3.6 per cent of PGCIL's revenue.
PowerGrid's follow-on issue subscribed fully - Attracts institutional investors
- The PowerGrid issue was fully subscribed on the first day of its follow-on offer, receiving bids worth more than Rs 8,000 crore. The issue, which opened for subscription on Tuesday, received bids for 90 crore shares against the 84 crore shares on offer. This is the first PSU follow-on offer that has seen such strong demand on the opening day itself. The FPOs of REC, NMDC, and NTPC barely saw any interest on their first day of offer and had managed to get fully subscribed due to institutional support. Retail portions for these issues did not get fully subscribed.
- In the case of the PowerGrid FPO, the institutional investor portion was subscribed 2.09 times, where 87.5 crore shares were bid for against the 41.9 crore shares on offer. FIIs bid for 30.8 crore shares and domestic institutions 56.7 crore shares. The retail portion received subscriptions for 6 per cent of the shares on offer. A total of 1.8 crore shares were bid against the 29.3 crore shares on offer. The high net worth investors' portion was subscribed 0.09 times.
- The issue will close for QIBs on November 11 and for other investors on November 12. The PSU is offering 84 crore shares through the issue and is planning on raising more than Rs 7,500 crore. The price band has been fixed at Rs 85-90 a share. The issues of NMDC and NTPC were also two issues in which the Government had experimented with the French auction method of pricing. Under this alternative book building model, institutional buyers would be free to bid above a certain floor price and the allotment would be on price-priority basis and at differential prices.
- During the time of these issues, the stock market too were rather flat unlike now when the stocks are trading near all-time highs, said market-men. The Engineers India issue on its first day was subscribed 0.01 times. But the issue was subscribed 13.36 times by the time it closed. The retail potion was subscribed 2.35 times. The shares of PowerGrid closed up 5.49 per cent on BSE on Tuesday at Rs 103.75 a piece touching a high of Rs 104.95 in intraday trade. The scrip had closed down more than 3 per cent at Rs 98.95 on Monday.
- Market-men said that Tuesday witnessed a jump in the scrip due to the good response seen in the FPO. "The euphoria after the success of the Coal India issue seems to have had a rub off effect on the PowerGrid FPO," said Mr Jagannadham Thunuguntla, Equity Head at SMC Capital. Coal India's Rs 15,000-crore issue was subscribed 15.2 times and fetched good demand from all categories of investors. The scrip listed at a premium of close to 40 per cent on Thursday. A lot of retail investors who bid for the Coal India issue said that they would be putting their money into the PowerGrid issue as well.
PowerGrid plans to raise Rs 80 billion through the sale of bonds in the domestic market over the next fiscal
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