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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India offers all assistance in Renewable Energy to Nepal...

 

India has offered all possible assistance to Nepal in developing its renewable energy resources. This offer was made by Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister for New and Renewable Energy when he called on the President of Nepal, Dr. Ram Baran Yadav at Kathmandu.

Dr Abdullah was on a day-long visit to the Nepali capital. During the meeting, Dr Abdullah also conveyed the congratulations of the government of India on the successful conduct of the second constituent assembly elections in Nepal.

Dr Abdullah also called on Mr Khil Raj Regmi, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Interim Election Government. During the meeting, Dr. Abdullah briefed him on the energy situation in India and the rapid growth of the renewable energy sector in India. He spoke of India’s plans to add significant amounts of renewable energy to its energy mix in the next 5 years. He also highlighted India’s conducive and investor friendly policy framework for promoting renewable energy in a big way. Dr. Abdullah suggested that Nepal had great potential for enhancing its use of renewable energy resources, particularly, hydro, solar and biomass and offered to provide all possible assistance for the purpose.

Earlier, the Minister inaugurated the India INVESTRADE in Nepal-an exposition and buyer seller meet on the electrical equipment and energy sector. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Abdullah made a strong pitch for cooperation between the two countries to develop Nepal’s hydropower resources. Terming it a ‘win-win proposal’, he urged for a meaningful cooperation between the countries to ease the power situation. He also urged the Indian exhibitors who were part of INVESTRADE to work closely with their Nepali counterparts to help develop Nepal’s vast and untapped energy potential.

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GMR, IFC to develop 600 MW hydro-power project in Nepal...

 

GMR Energy Limited, the energy arm of Indian infrastructure major GMR Group, has signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to jointly develop the 600 MW Upper Marsyangdi-II hydro-power project in Nepal.

The 600 MW Upper Marsyangdi-II project is located on the Marsyangdi river in the Manang and Lamjung districts of Nepal, some 200 km west from capital Kathmandu, and is already in an advanced stage of development.

The project is being currently undertaken through a Nepalese subsidiary of GMR Energy Limited, Himtal Hydropower Company Pvt. Ltd. The electricity produced by the project will be exported to India.

"The Nepalese government has identified the proposed Upper Marsyangdi-II as one of the National Priority Projects and is being facilitated by the Investment Board of Nepal. The project has completed all survey and investigation work, finalised the feasibility studies and has already received majority of the clearances from the government of Nepal," GMR said a press statement.

A project development agreement (PDA) is expected to be signed early next year. IFC will provide 10 percent of the capital and 15 percent of the total cost in loan for development of the project, according to the agreement.

The project will be implemented in the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model. It aims at a total investment of around $1 billion and is targeted for commissioning by the financial year 2021.

Himtal has already completed the Detailed Project Report (DPR) and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and submitted these to the energy ministry.

GMR is also constructing the 900 MW Upper Karnali hydro-power project which is also awaiting the PDA with the Investment Board of Nepal (IBN).

G.B.S Raju, chairman of energy business, and G. Subba Rao, chief executive of hydro business of GMR Group were present during the JDA signing ceremony.

"We are pleased to have IFC as our partners in the Upper Marsyangdi-II hydro-power project," Raju said.

"Apart from investing in the company, IFC will also bring its vast experience in financing similar large and complex infrastructure projects, which will add value to the project. We believe that with the continuous support of IBN, both GMR and IFC shall be able to implement this project in an accelerated manner," he added.

Anita George, IFC infrastructure director for Asia, said: "Nepali citizens and industry face severe electricity shortages. The development of hydro-power is a sustainable and responsible way to address this need while creating jobs and other benefits for the community."

According to Radhesh Pant, chief executive officer of IBN, the Nepal government was "hopeful that GMR and IFC teams shall be able to give Nepal the much needed impetus for large scale hydro-power development through development of this project in a world class manner".

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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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Nepal imports additional 300 MW power from India...

 

Nepal has begun buying an additional 30 MW of power from India in a bid to ease the chronic power shortage in the country during winter, officials said Monday.

Nepal faces up to 16 hours of load-shedding during the season.

"Since Sunday, we have added an additional 30 MW power from India, purchased from the Power Trading Corporation of India," said Bhuwan Kumar Chetteri, manager of the system operation department of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

The authority is the sole entity for generating and distributing power in the country.

The Power Trading Corporation of India has sold the power to Nepal at a rate of Rs.3.75 (NRs.6) per unit. The additional power import takes Nepal's total import from India to 165 MW.

Nepal has been requesting India to provide at least 250 MW to meet its increasing power deficit.

"We are in a process to import additional power from various cross border points at this juncture as many cross border lines are being maintained from both sides," Chetteri told IANS.

Nepal has also been importing power from Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, he said.

Several up gradation and revamp projects are underway to import power from other Indian states as well, he added.

The NEA is aiming to bring down load-shedding to 12 hours this winter by getting more power from India.

Currently, there is a shortfall of 350 MW to meet the requirements as existing capacity is just around 700 MW.

Measures are being taken to reduce power demand, including operating some multi-fuel plants and revamping existing power plants.

Officials said Nepal pays around Rs.22 billion every year for procuring power from India, which includes importing inverters and diesel generators.

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India-Nepal cross border power transmission capacity to get augmented...

 

Nepal with high hydropower potential and its neighbor India with high power demand have agreed to significantly boost up trans-border power transmission line to conduit the excess power from new hydro projects in West Nepal to India. A new World Bank loan sanctioned recently will facilitate early completion of the capacity augmentation project.

The planned immediate capacity augmentation is for at least 1000MW. In addition to the long planned Butwal in West Nepal to Gorakhpur in India line, There are simultaneous plans to construct three other cross-border transmission lines from Butwal-Gorakhpur, Duhabi-Purniya, Anarmani-Siliguri or Dhalkebar to Mujaffarpur

After having the issue discussed with Indian authority through Nepal's External Affairs Ministry, both the countries have come to a final agreement on the matter in meeting of Energy Group under the South Asian Sub-Regional Cooperation.

With a recently granted World Bank loan of USD 37 million, Nepal and India will have at least two double circuit transmission corridors between Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur and Hetuda-Dhalkebar-Duhabi. These will be of 90 and 40 km length respectively.

According to Nepal Minister for Science, Technology and Environment Mr. U. Jha, this augmentation of power import is must for Nepal especially in dry season. Hydropower rich, Nepal gets highly power starved during dry winter season due to low water flow through its rivers. Then it needs to import around 150MW power to meet even basic minimum need. But the present cross border transmission infrastructure gets only around 50MW to Nepal.

On the other side, more than five big hydropower projects with a collective capacity of around 20,000 MW are under feasibility study in West Nepal. Nepal cannot consume the output of those. If exported, the surplus power, generated out of these projects with renewable source to India, can get the financially crunched Nepal into a more comfortable situation.

Across the border, "Demand in Indian national grid is increasing rapidly. Rate of this demand growth in Eastern India is high. Proper power evacuation from Nepal can be of great help for India to meet up this extra demand," said Power Grid Corporation Limited officials.

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Nepal's initiative to benefit Indian hydropower companies...

 

With high hydropower potential but low output level, severely power starved Himalayan country Nepal is in process of widening the bottlenecking identified as hindrance for the power promoters, mainly from India, to come forward. The country has a set objective to produce 25,000 MW extra hydropower by 2030.

According to Mr. K D Adhikary, Joint Secretary at Nepal Energy Ministry, conflicting acts are causing trouble in initiating power projects. Thus, the country is planning to amend these acts.

As the Bonus Act and Electricity Act are contradictory to each other on the issue of bonus, so is the case of local Self-governance Act and Electricity Act on the issue of electricity royalty. Similarly, acts about registration fees, royalty, income tax, value-added tax ( VAT) are also conflicting. Officials in many departments have urged the government to review many other similar contradictory acts.

Issues like integrated license, Power Development Agreement (PDA), one-door policy, land acquisition and its ceiling, determination of the standard of resettlement, local participation in share investment and tax discounts are also being re assessed.

Undoubtedly these are going to make things easier for Indian companies getting involved into Nepal's hydropower initiatives through projects like Upper Karnali (900 MW), Marsyangdi II (600 MW), Arun III (900 MW) or Tamakoshi III (650 MW). There are many other potential projects to tap in.

Nepal government has an objective to generate 25,000 MW fresh hydropower and build adequate power evacuation infrastructure by 2030 to have 18,000MW export capability in hand.

But, "It is tough for financially crunched Nepal to develop all these alone. So, we are open for collaborations from other countries like India," said Nepal Power Ministry officials.

On the other side, "Nepal is a major source of green energy and promising field for Indian power developer companies. We are always keen on shouldering responsibility to harness this," said Mr. A.B.L. Srivastava, Director (Finance) of Indian hydropower major NHPC Limited.

Despite having 42,000MW economically viable hydropower potential Nepal's present production is around 1000MW, much lesser than its need at peak hour. The shortage forces the country's national power monopoly, Nepal Electricity Authority, to impose mandatory load shedding that sometimes goes even for 12 hr a day.

"Over 40% industrial operations are almost dead due to power shortage," said Nepal's major trade and commerce association members. "The new initiative may alter the scenario," they said.

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