Tata Power commissions first 63 MW unit of Bhutan hydro plant

 

Tata Power has commissioned the first unit of its 126 MW Dagachhu hydro power plant having a capacity of 63 MW in Bhutan.

Dagachhu project is a joint venture between Tata Power and Druk Green Power Corporation, owned by Royal Government of Bhutan and National Pension and Provident Fund of Bhutan.

With the commissioning of the first unit of this plant, Tata Power's overall hydro power generation capacity now stands at 513 MW and the total at 8,684 MW.

Dagachhu Hydro Power Corporation has entered into a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement with Tata Power Trading Company Ltd (TPTCL, a company of Tata Power) for sale of power from the project. The power generated from the project shall be sold by TPTCL in the Indian power market.

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KEC International gets Rs 1,215 cr order from India, overseas…

 

The KEC International Ltd, which provides EPC solutions to infrastructure sector, has got various orders worth Rs 1,215 crore for its transmission and cable businesses from both India and overseas.

The transmission business constitutes Rs 1,148 crore of the total order while the remaining Rs 67 crore is from the cable business, KEC International, a RPG Group firm, today said in a statement.

In the transmission business, the biggest order worth Rs 708 crore is from Saudi Electricity Company for design, supply and construction of 380 kV circuit overhead transmission line.

KEC International said its wholly-owned subsidiary SAE Towers has got Rs 196 crore orders from the US and Latin American countries.

Bhutan Power Corporation has awarded KEC International a Rs 180 crore order for supply and construction of 400 kV double-circuit transmission line.

Nepal Electricity Authority has placed a Rs 32-crore order for a 132kV transmission line.

In India, the Rs 32-crore order is from Power Grid Corporation for erecting a transmission line in West Bengal.

"In the cable business, the company has secured orders for the supply of power and telecom cables. The total value of these orders is Rs 67 crore," KEC International said.

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Boost Hydel power with proactive policy...

 

The report that tiny Bhutan seeks to be India's hydel partner is good news for sustainability and promises to significantly make up for the declining share of hydroelectric power capacity nationally.

We do need to step-up hydel capacity in areas of steep gradient that would considerably reduce submergence, like the sub-Himalayan region and particularly the northeast, which is hugely water surplus.

It is also welcome that two proposed hydel projects in the Siang river valley in Arunachal Pradesh have reportedly got environmental nod. Note that the two projects — Simang I and II totalling 133 MW — are located on the Simang, the right bank tributary of the river Siang; the Siang valley alone has an estimated 12,450 MW of hydel potential, which, in the north-east as a whole, is well in excess of 50,000 MW, much of it in Arunachal Pradesh.

Overall, a projected 90,000 MW of pumped storage hydel capacity is yet to be tapped. Hydel capacity is not just renewable but also provides the cheapest peaking power.

And peaking load is set to surge in fast urbanising India. Our hydel capacity, meanwhile, has reduced steeply to barely 17% of total power generation capacity and currently adds up to just over 39,000 MW.

A host of policy rigidities seem to come in the way of hydel power. The lack of ready availability of long-term financing does add to project risks. Also, the sheer uncertainty over environmental, forest and other clearances and infrastructural bottlenecks on the ground add to the costs.

Further, while power projects get customs and excise exemption for equipment, 75% of hydel project costs are civil works for which there is no parallel benefit, no accelerated depreciation, and conventional hydel power is not even labelled renewable energy. That is plain anomalous.

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Bhutan seeks to be India's hydel plant...

 

Giant cranes scoop out mud from deep inside the mountains. Frenetic construction activity is on as a state-run company in this tiny landlocked Himalayan country races to complete one of the crucial hydropower plants.

Workers at the site of the Dagachu hydropower plant are busy giving final touches to the project which is expected to go on stream by the middle of 2014.

The 126 megawatt plant is the first under the public-private-partnership model and has already connected 9,000 rural households in Bhutan. The plant, located in the remote Dagachu river, has been built under the PPP model and is the first foreign direct investment for the Himalayan country.

This is also the world's first cross-border clean development mechanism (CDM) project. The CDM allows emission reduction projects in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction credits and these can be traded and sold to meet part of the emission reduction targets under the Kyoto protocol.

The state-run Druk Green Power Corporation holds 59%, the Pension and Provident Fund of Bhutan 15% and the Tata Power Company 26% in the project. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is the lead financier and has provided $80 million for the project along with funding from an Austrian commercial bank.

Bhutan is banking on hydropower exports to India to revive the fortunes of its faltering economy. Several large projects are underway and companies such as Jaypee, Larsen & Toubro and Gammon India are taking part in the massive construction underway.

"At this stage of development, we are highly dependent on exploiting the water resources of Bhutan," said Sonam Tshering, Bhutan's secretary of economic affairs.

The urgency for building hydropower plants in the picture-postcard country is palpable.

Bhutan is grappling with a large current account deficit estimated at 20% of its gross domestic product. The sale of electricity from these projects to a ready-and-captive market in India will help it earn precious foreign exchange to sustain its economy. New Delhi has lent a helping hand and, in turn, will receive steady supplies to meet its growing energy needs.

"The best part of the hydel power development in Bhutan is that hydro power projects are all funded by the Government of India through a very generous combination of grants and loans," said Nam Dorji, Bhutan's finance secretary.

In 2010, electricity exports from Bhutan to India amounted to 5.579 kilowatt hour, helping the country earn about $223 million, according to ADB data.

India and Bhutan signed a pact in 2008 to develop hydropower projects in the country and about 10,000 megawatt power would be exported to India by 2020.

The development of such projects augurs well for the region. "Regional trade in energy can help send energy from places that have excess, such as Bhutan, to countries in need of energy like India, optimizing the region's energy resources," ADB said.

"The recently established India-Bangladesh transmission line could ultimately allow energy to go from Bhutan to Bangladesh," the multi lateral agency said.

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International competitive bidding for Mangdechhu Hydro Project at Bhutan...

 

It has been decided to follow international competitive bidding (ICB) process for Electro-Mechanical Works: Package EM-3 (400kV Gas Insulated Switchgear) and EM-4 (400kV Cross Link Polyethylene (XLPE) cables for Mangdechhu hydro power project coming up in Bhutan.

It may be noted that there are no Indian manufacturers of 400kV GIS and 400kV XLPE cables and the material has to be procured from the global market.

It may also be remembered here that in case of Punatsangchhu-I and II HEP ICB route was adopted to select the suppliers.

720 MW Mangdechhu HEP is one of the 10 HEPs planned under the 10,000 MW hydropower development by the year 2020 program of Government of Bhutan supported by Govt. of India. 30% of the project cost will be reimbursed by India as grant and the rest will be funded through a loan from India to Bhutan.

The project is scheduled for commissioning by September, 2017.

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India working on build greater energy links in the neighborhood...

 

India is working on setting up an energy-efficient power transmission (HDVC) line to Nepal and Bhutan as part of its energy security plans, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said on Thursday.

India’s long-term plans include a grid linking South-east Asian nations with those of South Asia, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, the minister said while outlining ambitious schemes to build greater energy links in India’s neighbourhood.

Khurshid was speaking at a two-day World Energy Policy Summit that began in New Delhi on Thursday.

Among the projects on the anvil to address India’s energy deficit is the US-backed $9 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, Khurshid said. It is expected to be completed by 2017-18.

“We are also, in a very, very nascent way, beginning to link our electricity grid to Bangladesh through the HVDC (high voltage direct current) power transmission line that we have inaugurated recently,” he said referring to 500 megawatt transmission line linking India’s eastern electrical grid to the western grid of Bangladesh that was inaugurated in October.

The Asian Development Bank, which helped finance the $199 million interconnection facilities in Bangladesh with a $112 million loan, described it as “a key step forward in regional power sharing and cooperation.”

India is also working “on the India-Nepal HVDC link which will perhaps begin with providing power to Nepal in order, ultimately, to be able to take power (import) from Nepal. Again, same sort of thing is what we hope we will be able to do with Bhutan. Nepal and Bhutan will become a major source of supply of power to India,” Khurshid said.

“Of course, we could have a grid that goes into Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). We have road connectivity with Asean, but we would also have hopefully power connectivity with Asean, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and into Pakistan and perhaps into Afghanistan as well,” Khurshid said. Asean is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

According to the 2011 Census, only 67.2% Indian households had access to electricity. Highlighting the unmet energy needs of a large segment of the population, the International Energy Agency’s October World Energy Outlook said India is set to overtake China in the 2020s as the principal source of growth in global energy demand.

India’s Power Grid Corp., in its 2012-13 annual report, said it was preparing a feasibility study for connecting South Asia through a grid—a plan first mooted in the late 1990s. South Asian neighbours India and Pakistan have been discussing the sale of power. And as part of its reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, India has constructed a 220kV transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul and a 220/110/20 kV sub-station at Chimtala to bring additional power from the northern grid to Kabul.

India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are part of the eight-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation which also includes Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Towards the east, India has been trying to build closer links including connectivity with the high-growth Asean countries as a means to develop its insurgency-riven northeastern region. India and the Asean have set a bilateral trade target of $100 billion by 2015.

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India to set up HVDC transmission line with Nepal, Bhutan...

 

India is working to set up an energy efficient power transmission line (HVDC) with Nepal and Bhutan as part of its energy security plans, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said on Thursday.

India also hopes to have power transmission connectivity with ASEAN and SAARC countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar, he said while addressing the World Energy Policy Summit 2013 here.

"We are also working on the India-Nepal HVDC link which will perhaps begin with providing power to Nepal in order ultimately to be able to take power (import) from Nepal.

Again, same sort of thing is what we hope we will be able to do with Bhutan. Nepal and Bhutan will become a major source of supply of power to India," he said.

"Of course, we could have a grid that goes into ASEAN. We have road connectivity with ASEAN, but we would also have hopefully power connectivity with ASEAN, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and into Pakistan and perhaps into Afghanistan as well," Khurshid said.

He, however, did not elaborate on the transmission connectivity plans to ASEAN nations.

India has been working for the last few years to put in place a multilateral SAARC Market for Electricity (SAME) and has plans to set up a larger SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) transmission grid.

In October, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had dedicated to the nation the 71-km Baharampur-Bheramara HVDC transmission link, which connected electricity grids of India and Bangladesh.

The link is designed to facilitate cross-border electricity transfer of up to 500 MW from India to Bangladesh.

As far as Bhutan is concerned, India's transmission link with that country is already in place.

The government has plans to augment the existing line to import upto 5,000 MW power from Bhutan by 2020 through HVDC (high voltage direct current) transmission line.

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Bhutan asks India to expedite development of more hydro power projects...

 

Terming India as a 'partner', Bhutan today said it should expedite the development of a few more hydro projects in the next couple of years and invited Indian companies to explore the possibility of investments.

"What we are looking for in the next two to three years is to expedite the development of a few more hydro projects. Our expectations from India are a couple of things --interest expressed by Indian companies to come to Bhutan, the ongoing interest to exploit natural resources for our purposes," Sonam Kinga, chairperson of the National Council of Bhutan, told PTI.

He also said his country also expects Indian companies to come to Bhutan and also see India's interest in exploiting natural recources for their purposes.

The Chairman of the Bhutan's National Council said "this (hydro) is one project where irrespective of the size of both the country's economies, mutual benifits can be harnessed through cooperation and this is a very successful project".

"We also expect that once power is produced and since there is a guaranteed need for power in India, it will give us the impetus for an accelerated economic development and it will also contribute in small but meaningful ways to India's need for power," Kinga added.

Asked about the recent stopping of subsidy given to Bhutan by India on LPG and Kerosene and then restoring it, Kinga said he and the Bhutanese people do not believe that India had decided to take away the subsidy.

"It has been explained to us by the Indian Ambassador to Bhutan that the timing of the Bhutanese election and the end of the tenth five year plan coincided so much so that there was no continuity to begin the talk. It was not a removal (of subsidy) but the talk that needed to happen could not be possible since there was ongoing election and there was no government in place (in Bhutan)," Kinga said.

Asked about the recent Rs 1 billion grant provided by India to Bhutan for the new government's Economic Stimulus Plan (ESP) and India's commitment to provide Rs 5 billion to the Himalayan nation, outside the 11th Plan assistance, Kinga said it was a "generous act" by India.

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