Bihar Government to soon propose new policies on renewable energy sources…

As said by Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy CM of Bihar, the Bihar Government is considering to propose new policies on renewable energy sector which currently will focus on solar, biomass and hydro projects.

 

Modi, while attending Energy Revolution Bihar”, said that the government is willing to take suggestions from the renewable energy experts and make changes in its policy, if required.

 

The Energy Revolutions Bihar has been organized by Greenpeace India  to discuss the demand for a strong solar policy with mandatory targets for renewable energy (RE) purchase.

 

During the event, Modi also said that there were lots of potential in renewable energy sector in the state. He also said that he would talk to banks for make a hassle-free system for granting loan to budding entrepreneurs.

 

He further said that Government is planning to rope in the ITIs to cater to training and skills needed for renewable energy projects.

 

As said by Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Energy Minister,  the government has already identified five districts for setting up solar water plants in which the Centre's share would be 50 percent of the total amount while the state government would contribute the 40 percent. The remaining 10 percent would be given by the farmer.

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Power Capacity addition target for FY12-13 – 18000 MW…

It seems that the Power Ministry have fixed a target of adding 18,000 MW capacity in the current financial year of 2012-13.

 

In a meeting between the Power Ministry officials and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Mr Pulok Chatterji on Monday, the capacity addition target for 2012-13 was discussed.

 

The target may be around 16,000 MW during this fiscal and also additional 2,000 MW of nuclear power capacity, sources said.

 

The government has added about 53,000 MW power generation capacity in the past five years (2007-12), around 9,000 MW short of the target of 62,000 MW.

 

The government had earlier set a target of over 78,000 MW for the 2007-12 period, which was curtailed to 62,000 MW in the Planning Commission’s mid-term review due to lack of environment clearance for the coal blocks allotted for the power projects.

 

Even as power stations reel under acute shortage of coal, the ministry is hopeful of meeting this goal, by the end of this fiscal, sources added.

 

The Power Ministry also envisages to add 76,000 MW in the coming five years (2012-17), even though the Planning Commission has proposed a target of above 90,000 MW during the same period.

 

The ministry is of the view that since coal and gas are unavailable at the moment, setting up a huge capacity would be difficult.

 

Meanwhile, the Working Group on Power for formulation of the 12th Plan has estimated total fund requirement of Rs 13,72,580 crore for the power sector. Of the total amount, power generation would need around Rs 6,38,600 crore, while the requirement for electricity distribution has been pegged at Rs 3,06,235 crore.

 

According to the Planning Commission estimates, the country’s energy supply needs to grow at 6.5 per cent annually if the nation wants to achieve annual economic growth of 9 per cent during the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012—17) that commenced from April.

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Power Capacity Addition target fixed at 85,000 MW for the 12th plan period…

As informed by Mr. K. C. Venugopal, Minister of State for Power, the power capacity addition target during the 12th plan (2012-17) has been fixed as 85,000 MW.

 

According to him work on around 75,000 MW projects are already under going out of these massive power capacity addition target of 85,000 MW.

 

 

This capacity addition will meet the project power demand of 1354.87 Billion units by 2017 which has been estimated by the 18th Electric Power Survey (EPS) report.

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Coal Ministry asked CIL to singe Fuel Supply Agreements for power plants coming up between January 2012 to March 2015…

Coal India Limited has been directed by the Coal Ministry to sign Fuel Supply Agreements (FSA) with power plants which are getting commissioned between January 2012 and March 2015.

 

The directive came in response to a clarification sought by the Coal India on whether it should sign supply pacts with new thermal plants on the terms mentioned in the existing contracts or the new agreements, which significantly dilute the miner's supply obligations.

 

Coal India had approached the ministry as a presidential directive asked it to sign FSAs for plants that came up between April 2009 and December 2011, but it did not mention anything about plants commissioned after this period.

According to the ministry, about 40,000 MW of power generation capacities would be commissioned between January 2012 and March 2015.

Sector experts say this will increase pressure on the state-run miner, which is already struggling to meet the fuel demand of existing power units.

Coal India missed its revised 2011-12 production target, achieving only 435.84 million tonne against the projected 447 mt.

Coal India is also facing stiff resistance from power companies over the new FSAs, which these companies say are heavily loaded in favour of the miner.

 

Coal India has not been able to convince power producers, including the country's largest NTPC, to sign the new agreements even three weeks after the drafts were sent to them. Of the 50 FSAs it was supposed to sign, Coal India has managed to sign only 13.

The decision to invite new units to sign the same FSAs is likely to irk power producers even more. Power producers want to sign the FSAs on the terms of the existing contracts, which stipulate that if Coal Indi fails to supply 80% of the contracted coal, it will pay 40% of the value of the shortfall as penalty. This penalty has been reduced to 0.01% in the new FSAs.

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