10MW power plant in collaboration with Nabard and JREDA to light up 200 Hazaribag houses…

 

The 10MW mini-power plant, set up in collaboration with Nabard and Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Authority (JREDA) at Bengwari village under the Keredari block of Hazaribag district, was launched on Monday.

The chief general manager of NABARD, K C Panda, inaugurating the plant, said: "Nabard provided Rs 6 lakh and JREDA Rs 1 lakh, apart from technical assistance for setting up the plant. With this, more than 200 houses in the village will be electrified."

Residents of the remote village expressed their gratitude to NABARD and JEDA, an NGO for providing power, denied to them since Independence.

The plant will generate power with the help of coal and wood, which are available in plenty in Keredari. It may be mentioned here that the coal blocks in Keredari and Chatti Bariatu in Keredari block have been allotted to NTPC for the production of coal to generate power. But the company is yet to start its work due to a long-standing dispute with the villagers over land acquisition as well as payment of compensation.

Panda said: "Nabard is willing to provide financial assistance for setting up of more such mini-power plants if villagers come forward to be trained in running such plants." A team of villagers led by M K Mahto of Bengawari were sent to Rajasthan to obtain technical knowhow on running and operating the mini-power plant. The technical expert of JREDA, P P Verma said: "Now the villagers will have to ensure that the plant is run by trained villagers." He, however, added that whenever the villagers require any technical assistance, JREDA will provide it to them.

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Solar power plant for Daltonganj Sadar hospital in Jharkhand...

 

There is good news for Daltonganj sadar hospital that has been suffering from frequent bouts of power failure. The government hospital, which started functioning from a new building recently, will soon be fitted with a 37-kilowatt solar power plant.

Though the hospital has been provided with a transformer as part of the Integrated Action Plan (IAP), it is not enough to meet the power needs of the health centre.

Palamu DC Manoj Kumar said the solar plant would help improve the power condition. The budget of installing the plant is said to run into less than a crore.

Following a decision of the hospital management committee, the outpatient department now charges Rs 5 per patient. The hospital makes around Rs 80,000-90,000 a month. Kumar said the money is spent on the upkeep of the hospital.

Quizzed about the stench emanating from the new building because of the dirt, filth and garbage, the DC said the NGO engaged in cleanliness has been removed and a fresh tender will be floated soon to engage another agency for this job.

The hospital does not have a community kitchen despite the fact that the number of indoor patients in every department like maternity, child ward, bone ward, medicine ward, surgery ward, etc remains high throughout. In the absence of a food court, visitors are forced to buy outside food, which doesn't come cheap.

Kumar said the administration will ask the civil surgeon to help locate a site and send a proposal for a community kitchen where a patient's attendant can cook food for himself. The district administration has taken a serious note of the articles bought for its health subcentres, which are lying abandoned in a room. Kumar said, "This is really worrisome. I found articles worth several lakh rupees dumped, which can be stolen any day.''

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NTPC’s Chhatti Bariatu coal block will last 40 years...

 

NTPC’s Chhatti-Bariatu South Coal block is spread over 750 ha land and has net geological reserves of 358.35 MT with total mineable reserves of 262.42 MT.

NTPC hopes to mine the field for 40 years with annual production of 7 MTPA of coal.

The coal block for which NTPC has presented mining plan recently is located in North Karanpura coalfield in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand.

The coal block will also need additional land for diversion of power line, road, etc to the south of the block.

NTPC plans to spend an estimated amount of about Rs. 120 crore on abandonment activities that will include dump management, rehabilitation/plantation, top soil management, reclamation of quarry and various other activities.

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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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630 MW Bokaro Thermal Plant of DVC closed down due to pollution issues...

 

630 MW Bokaro hermal Station of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) was ordered to shut down on October 24 as it was found polluting the Kolar River.

The Ash ponds of Bokaro thermal station were overflowing and the ash was being released to the Kolar River which is a subsidiary of Damodar River in gross violation of pollution norms. The Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board had raised serious objection which DVC was unable to address. The Chief Secretary Jharkhand has ordered the total shutdown of the station to save the Damodar River from further degradation.

All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) in a letter to Union Power Minister has alleged that the shutdown of this station is a case of management failure on part of DVC. An enquiry into the events leading to the closure of Bokaro thermal unit and management failure needs to be ordered.

The closure of this station will cause immediate and direct financial loss to DVC as the DVC tariff is governed by CERC and capacity charges get reduced when station availability falls. Capacity charges are recovered through tariff and when station power is zero the revenue loss is immediate.

AIPEF has suggested that a task force or crisis management group may be set up to tackle the ash problem and to revive the plant.

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Reliance Power's 4000 MW Tilaiya UMPP need to receive PSU status to get exemption for compensatory forestation requirement...

 

Reliance Power Limited's (RPower) 4,000 MW Tilaiya Ultra Mega Power Plant (UMPP) is required to receive a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) status from the Central Government in order to be exempted by the Jharkhand Government from providing non-forest land in return for diverting forest land for the proposed mega power project.

 

As per the rules of diversion of forest land, the projects of state run companies are exempted from providing compensation in cases where forest land is diverted for the projects.

The Tilaiya Ultra Mega Power Project was an Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) set up by the state run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) which is the nodal agency for Ultra Mega Power Projects in the country.

Later on the project was awarded to Reliance Power Limited and the SPV was transferred to it.

However, as per the Jharkhand Government, the decision is yet to be made by the Central Government on whether the Tilaiya plant will be considered a private company plant or a government plant. Based on that, they will or will not compensate for the land acquired for the plant.

 

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