DVC hopes delays will not affect 2,520 MW Purullia thermal project cost...

 

Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), which is setting up a 2,520-MW thermal power plant in Purulia, West Bengal, has said the delay occurred in laying water pipes required for the plant would not lead to a major cost escalation.

The pipeline-laying work, stalled on October 21 due to land acquisition woes, will resume on Friday, R N Sen, Chairman of DVC, told Business Line here on Thursday.

“This is a manageable situation, even though the contractors have been clamoring for compensation for frequent work stoppages in laying the pipeline and other related civil work,” he said. “If the work could be carried out smoothly from now on, the residual corridor work can complete in the next four months.”Local residents have been resisting the use of land not only for the water corridor but also for a railway line for bringing coal, and building a fly ash pond. For the railway line, DVC needs about 24 acres out of a total of 80 acres required for the project.

These three auxiliary facilities—water corridor, railway line and fly ash pond—are now the major bottlenecks for executing the the power project. Apart from these three, the first project work was “ready”, DVC has said.

COMPLETION DATE

Added Sen: “The situation appears to have eased, but eruption of trouble in the future cannot be ruled out.”The first 600-MW unit in the first phase of the Raghunathpur Thermal Power Project was originally set for commissioning in November 2010.

The second phase of the project is expected to complete in six months after the commissioning of the first unit. The first and second phases are slated to cost around Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore, respectively.

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JSW Bengal to commence Salboni project with power...

 

With the Rs 35,000-crore integrated steel plant by JSW Bengal failing to take off, the state government has advised the company to venture into power.

"The Chief Minister had suggested that we go in for a power plant as due to the issue of iron-ore no banker was keen for financial closure," JSW Bengal CEO Biswadeep Gupta said.

Gupta said the state government will help in bringing changes in the agreement.

JSW Bengal was planning to setup 660-MW power plant at a cost of Rs 5,000-6,000 cror. The company was unable to get iron-ore linkages for the steel project.

Gupta said in the next to three to four months, the company was expected to get clearances and ground breaking for the power project was expected in April, 2014.

The entire generation was likely to be purchased by the state government.

The company had planned 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) integrated steel project at Salboni, West Midnapore.

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Jindal Steel's Coal to GAs Project at Odisha to be commissioned next month...

 

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) today said it will commission its coal-to-gas project, the first such project in the country, at Angul in Odisha next month.

“The coal-to-gas project (at Angul) will be commissioned next month,” JSPL Chairman Naveen Jindal said.

The coal-to-gas project is a part of the Rs 21,000 crore investment that the company has made at Angul for setting up a 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) steel mill and a 810-MW power plant.

Once commissioned, this would mark the completion of 1.5 mtpa integrated steel plant of the company in the first phase.

The company has also proposed to expand its steel-making capacity at the facility to 12.5 mtpa and generate 2,600 MW of power in phases.

JSPL has signed an agreement with Lurgi Technology Company, South Africa, for providing the technology for coal gasification.

The technology to be used in this plant offers practical means of utilizing indigenous coal for meeting stringent environmental control requirements.

The plant would produce 225,000 Nm3/hr synthetic gas.

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ADB proposes equity investment in welpsun renewables to the tune of USD 50 K...

 

Asian Development Bank has released a Project Data Sheet (PDS) under which it has proposed to invest in Welspun Renewables Energy Limited's (WREL) projects on Solar and Wind Power Development.

 

As per the PDS, ADB may invest around USD 50,000 into the company in the form of Equity investment.

As said by the ADB

WREL is one of the leading renewable power developers in India. As of November 2013, WREL had 309 MW of operational projects (289 MW of solar projects in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan; and 20 MW of wind projects in Rajasthan), 211 MW of projects under construction (119 MW solar and 92 MW wind), and a pipeline of 1.2 GW of projects at various stages of development. The project will help the company reach at least 600 MW of operational projects by March 2016.

ADB proposes the said investment based on the following criteria:

• The project is consistent with ADB's Strategy 2020.
• It relates to two of the strategy's five core pillars: infrastructure and environment. The strategy calls for ADB support to clean energy development to meet growing energy demands in a sustainable manner.
• The project will also contribute to ADB's operational goal of scaling up private sector development. The project is also aligned with the India country partnership strategy, 2013 2016, which calls for the expansion of clean and renewable energy development (solar, hydro, wind, biomass) and more commercial approaches to support the deployment of advanced, energy efficient, and renewable energy technology including solar and wind energy.

With the project pertaining to expansion of clean and renewable energy and thereby contributing to climate change mitigation efforts by reducing greenhouse gas emission, ADB requires WREL to adopt an environmental and social management system (ESMS) satisfactory to ADB prior to ADB's investment.

While Welspun has agreed to develop its capacity, as desired by ADB, to oversee the ESMS implementation at the corporate and project level, the project proponent will also comply with ADB's Social Protection Strategy and report to ADB on measures taken to ensure the same.

The PDS as released by ADB can be accessed here.

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UK's CDC Group invests $25 Million in Green Infra, $200 Million in the infrastructure fund of idfc...

 

UK's Development Finance Institution (DFI) CDC Group Plc has invested around $225 Million in IDFC Alternatives' second infrastructure fund and renewable energy firm Green Infra.

CDC has invested $25 million in Green Infra, one of India’s largest independent renewable power producers with generating capacity of 387 MW. Green Infra is incubated and owned by private equity funds managed by IDFC Alternatives. CDC's investment is part of a $125 million financing round for Green Infra, where earlier it raised funding from Piramal Enterprises.

Green Infra will use the capital to expand its wind and solar power generation capacity through a combination of organic growth and selective acquisitions. The company has grown its generating capacity to 387 MW across 18 assets in six Indian states, with more than 90% of its generation capacity coming from wind. The CDC investment will allow Green Infra to reach its targeted capacity of 1,000 MW of generating assets by 2016, the equivalent of 5 per cent of India’s current wind capacity.

CDC Group also said that it is committing $200 million to the India Infrastructure Fund 2 (IIF2), run by IDFC Alternatives. The commitment from CDC, which is its largest ever to an Indian investment fund, helped IIF2 reach a first close of $644 million in September.

The fund is expecting a final close at $1 billion by end of 2013. CDC has had a long association with IDFC, as it was an early investor in the infrastructure lender in the 90s and also backed its private equity funds as a limited partner (LP). CDC also backed IDFC’s first India Infrastructure Fund in 2008 by providing $100 million.

CDC is one of the largest investors in Indian private equity funds with over $680 million invested - and $1.1 billion committed - supporting almost 300 companies in the country. Around 28 per cent of CDC’s Indian investment has been in infrastructure.

Original article is posted here.

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Power Engineers’ Federation writes to CEA regarding poor performance of Sasan UMPP...

 

While Reliance Power Limited, a part of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, recently achieved boiler light up for the second 660 MW unit at the 3,960 MW Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project, the All India Power Engineers Federation has written to the Central Electricity Authority demanding that a probe be conducted into the repeated tripping and shut down of the first 660 MW unit synchronized on March 9th this year.

The Sasan UMPP is the world’s largest integrated power plant and coal mining project with an estimated investment of over Rs. 23,000 crore. Coal production has already commenced from the 20 million tonnes per annum capacity Moher and Moher-Amlohri coal mines.

The achievement of boiler light up is considered a critical milestone in boiler commissioning activities for a unit.

According to the company, construction works at the remaining units are at an advanced stage and they would be commissioned over the next few months.

The AIPEF in its letter to the CEA said that the unit synchronized on March 9th and operating on scheduled mode since August 16th could achieve a Plant Load Factor of only 28 percent during the period August 16th to November 7th because of repeated tripping and shut down.

The power engineers’ representative body said that after synchronization on March 9th, the unit was put on trial run in the last week of the same month and achievement of parameters for commercial operation wrongly declared from March 31st. In the third performance test held in August, the unit could not run for 72 continuous hours above 95 percent but even then commercial operation was declared, the letter pointed out.

Secretary General of AIPEF Shailendra Dubey said that the poor performance of the unit was resulting in losses for the states assured of low cost and reliable power from the project. The share of Uttar Pradesh from the project is 12 percent and that of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana stands at 37.5 percent, 15 percent and 11.25 percent respectively.

The Sasan UMPP has a levelized tariff of 119.6 paisa per unit whereas for the first two years, power is to be supplied at 70 paisa per unit.

Dubey said that on one hand Uttar Pradesh was purchasing power from Reliance’s Rosa power plant in Shahjahanpur at more than Rs. 5.50 per unit and on the other, the low cost power assured to the state from the company’s Sasan UMPP was not being supplied. He said that Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited needed to take up the matter with the Centre and CEA and seek compensation from Reliance for the failure to supply low cost power from the Sasan UMPP.

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Tata Power to go ahead with 1600 MW coastal Maharashtra project...

 

Tata Power has received all the required statutory clearance to go ahead with the 1600 MW thermal power project being developed at Dherand near Alibaug in coastal Maharashtra.

As per he company, the project is in advance stages of land acquisition. The PPA is being pursued and 30% domestic coal linkage as per policy is also being awaited.

In the second quarter of FY14, the Company reported revenue growth of 14% driven by operations of all the units of Mundra and Maithon.

The quarterly results showed that the company has performed well despite a volatile macro environment. Sales volume for the quarter stood at 3762 MUs and the overall Generation was 3404 MUs. Mundra reported generation of 5425 MUs as compared to 1540 MUs in corresponding quarter last year.

Maithon plant reported 1211 MUs as compared to 1196 MUs. Trombay Thermal Power Station generated 1670 MUs while hydro power stations generated 478 MUs. Jojobera thermal power station generated 747 MUs and Haldia reported generation of 223 MUs.

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Power Ministry recommends financial restructuring of jharkhand, bihar and karnataka discoms...

 

Power Ministry has sent the note on financial restructuring of state discoms to the cabinet for final approval, a top ministry official today said.

As per the proposal, the state electricity boards of Jharkhand, Bihar and Karnataka will be allowed to convert their outstanding loans, till March 2013, into bonds as part of an amendment to the discom debt restructuring package.

"We have sent the note to the (Cabinet) Secretariat for the final nod," Power Secretary P K Sinha told reporters here on the sidelines of Indian Energy Summit. Karnataka along with Jharkhand and Bihar had approached the Ministry seeking this special provision.

Currently, under Financial Restructuring Package (FRP), which was approved by the government last year, 50 per cent of the accumulated debt of the discoms till March 2012 can be converted into bonds.

These bonds will be issued by the distribution companies to the participating lenders, backed by state government guarantees. Balance 50 per cent loans will be restructured by providing moratorium on principal and best possible terms for repayments.

The support under the scheme is available for all participating state-owned discoms on fulfilling short-term mandatory conditions. The accumulated losses of state power distribution companies are estimated at about Rs 1.9 lakh crore as on March 31, 2011, and Rs 2.46 lakh crore as on March 31, 2012.

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MP Solar Energy companies are in bad shape...

 

Solar Energy producers in Madhya Pradesh are in bad state due to low power purchase by the State Distribution Companies (Discoms) from the Solar Projects installed in the state.

According to sources, the MP Power Management Company is buying only 10.7 crore units annually leaving deficit of 23.9 crore units.

Ujaas Energy, Welspun and Waaree are the major solar producers in the state and feel that unless there is a new regulation will be introduced the solar energy situation in the state will not change.

Solar Producers are also referring to the recent RPO compliance orders issued by the Regulatory Commission of Maharashtra and Joint Regulatory Commission of Goa and UTs.

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