Himachal cabinet approves sale of power to Tata Power Trading Company Limited…

 

The Himachal Pradesh cabinet on Thursday approved the selection of Power Trading Corporation of India Limited and Tata Power Trading Company Limited (TPCL) for a year for the sale of government's entitlement of power from various hydroelectric projects.

In a meeting chaired by chief minister Virbhadra Singh, the cabinet decided that the trading margin might be increased if better rates for power sale were received.

The cabinet also gave its nod to the establishment of a government engineering college at Nagrota Bagwan in Kangra district. This college will have 40 seats each in mechanical engineering, electronics and communication engineering and electrical engineering.

Giving the impetus to health care, the cabinet also approved primary health centres (PHC) at Sheelghat, Shimla, and Patta-Baravery in Solan district, and a health sub-centre at Dattowal village in Solan district.

The government also sanctioned industrial training institutes (ITI) for Gagret, Balh, Manali and Patta Mehlog with two trades from the next academic session along with creation of posts. A veterinary dispensary at Navi, Shimla district, also got the cabinet's nod along with filling up of a post of veterinary pharmacist and a post of animal husbandry assistant.

The state cabinet also accorded approval to the establishment of Poorna Shakti Kendra (PSK) project in Solan district.

Besides, the government also approved filling up of 100 vacant posts of ayurvedic medical officers in the ayurveda department on contract basis, and filling up of 50 posts of clerks on contract basis by direct recruitment through Himachal Pradesh Subordinate Service Selection Board, Hamirpur, against the vacant posts of senior assistants in relaxation of recruitment and promotion rules and keeping equivalent number of posts in senior assistants in abeyance.

The cabinet's nod was also given to eight posts of lecturers in IGMC Government Dental College, Shimla, by direct recruitment through Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC). State government also accorded approval to fill up the post of director, sainik welfare department, on regular basis through the HPPSC, besides filling up of 8 vacant posts of deputy directors (Class 1) in the sainik welfare department through direct recruitment on contract basis. The approval was accorded to the draft notification of Himachal Pradesh Raj (Appointment and Conditions of Service of Panchayat Sahayaks in Zila Parishads) Rules, 2014.

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Lanco says it got favourable APTEL ruling in Amarkantak issue...

 

Lanco Infratech's received a favourable verdict on its year-long dispute with Haryana Power Generation Corporation (HPGCL) over the second unit of its Amarkantak power plant.

“As per the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity’ (APTEL) order, Amarkantak Unit 2 shall be paid regulated tariff based on the actual capital cost of the project. This would result in sustainable and profitable operation of the project at full capacity,” said Lanco, in a press release today. The exact tariff for the power plant, is yet to be known as the order has not been made public.

The 300 megawatt second unit which was commissioned, could not start generating due to the dispute, can now start generation. The power generator's power purchase agreement with Power Trading Corporation (PTC) to supply to HPGCL, was terminated. This was over the non-compliance of certain PPA covenants.

The receivables from this unit have been pegged at Rs 195 crore, by the end of the second quarter. The first unit of coal-based Amarkantak power, which is located in Chhattisgarh, has been generating power and earning revenues, unlike the second unit. 

Lanco's Rs 7,700 crore debt recast was approved by its lenders, last month. Amongst other developments, Lanco said that it has two cases pending verdicts with APTEL and that they were expecting favourable judgments.

“Once tariff orders are passed, we will take around six months for payments to be cleared. We expect the payments to come over time and not immediately,” said Adi Babu, the chief financial officer of Lanco, told Business Standard in an interview after its debt recast was approved.

The release of payments from its power plants is one of the positive developments that the company had expected after its corporate debt restructuring (CDR) package was approved by the lenders. As its payments from Karnataka state utility as well as that of Haryana is cleared, the company expects its business to start turnaround by March.

Source: Business Standard

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UP Cabinet clears over 2100 Mw purchase from private players...

 

Unfazed by opposition's criticism of power purchase at higher rates, UP cabinet on Tuesday, gave its nod to buying over 2100 Mw of power from three companies for 25 years at a rate ranging between Rs 5.58 per unit and Rs 5.84 per unit.

The cabinet also gave a year's extension to work contract of a Spanish transmission company, Isolux Corsan, engaged in construction of transmission lines to evacuate power from three upcoming plants in Uttar Pradesh.

The purchase of power from three companies-KSK Mahanadi, PTC India Limited and Krishnapattanam- happens to come through under the case-1 bidding process that envisages procurement of 6000 Mw of power for a period of 25 years, beginning 2016 up to 2042. Chief secretary Jawed Usmani said while 1000 Mw of power would be purchased from KSK Mahanadi, PTC will wheel out 361 Mw to the state. Likewise, the Krishnapattanam power corporation will be providing 800 Mw of power to the state. In all, around 2100 Mw of power will be purchased from the three external sources to meet the ever growing demand for power in UP. The issue was earlier cleared by the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) board as well as the energy task force (ETF) headed by UP chief secretary.

Principal secretary Energy, Sanjay Agarwal, said since power will be purchased at a levelised tariff over a long period, the actual cost of power comes down drastically. For example, in the first year (2016-17) the KSK will be providing power at the rate of Rs 4.713 per unit. The PTC India and Krishnapatnam will provide it at Rs 4.784 and Rs 4.436 per unit, respectively. This increases gradually over a period of time and by 2042, the three companies will be providing power at the rate of Rs 9.682, Rs 11.474 and Rs 18.275 per unit, respectively.

The principal secretary said power purchase under the case-1 bidding was sent for law department clearance which did not allow negotiations to be carried out under the stipulated guidelines. He said clearance was also taken by the UP electricity regulatory commission (UPERC). "Had power been purchased every year, the cost would have gone up dramatically,'' a senior UPPCL official said. Agarwal said guidelines for power purchased under the Case-1 have been changed, hence the cost of coal would be computed accordingly in per unit charge. This raised the chances of a further hike in rate of power to be purchased.

At least seven bidders (L-1 to L7) had come forward. The three companies which bid the lowest prices included NSL power (for providing 300 Mw at the rate of Rs 4.48 per unit), TRN energy (for providing 390 Mw at the rate of Rs 4.886 per unit) and Lanco Babandh (for providing 390 Mw at the rate of Rs 5.074 per unit). The state government has already issued a letter of intent to purchase power from these companies. The state cabinet, however, rejected L4-RKM Powergen (for 350Mw) which bid at the cost of Rs 5.088 per unit, due to its failure in meetings the commitments. Usmani said the state cabinet had decided to invoke company's bid bond of Rs 10.5 crore.

Even as the state government gears up to purchase power from external sources, questions are being raised if this would further raise the debt of the state government. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who also holds the energy portfolio, had been blaming the previous Mayawati government of leaving UPPCL cash-strapped by taking loans that resulted in liability of Rs 25,000 crore.

In another decision, the state cabinet gave a year's extension to Spanish company Isolux Corsan to complete laying of transmission lines to evacuate power from power plants. The company was roped in January 2012 and was supposed to finish its work by January 2014. The company, however, was caught in a controversy after it insisted on changing the specification of conductors. The UPERC, however, rejected the demand. In the process the work on the project got delayed. The company was given the work contract of constructing transmission lines to evacuate power from three power plants-Bara, Meja and Tanda.

The company has now been asked to get the work completed partially by December 2014 to evacuate power from at least one Bara unit of 660 Mw. The rest of the work may be done by August 2015 when the other two units of Bara (660 x 2 Mw), Meja and Tanda get operational.

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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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PTC India Financial Services eyes Rs 500 million from stake sale in energy exchange…

• Infrastructure lender PTC India Financial Services (PFS) expects to garner as much as Rs 50 crore from sale of over 16% stake in the country's largest power bourse, Indian Energy Exchange (IEX). PFS, which currently holds 21.12% stake in the power exchange, would probably divest more than 16% to one or more overseas players, sources said. On a conservative basis, the divestment of over 16% stake is expected to mop up about Rs 45 to 50 crore. The sale is expected to be complete by end of December, they added. he promoters of IEX include diversified group Financial Technologies (India) Ltd and PFS, a group company of leading power trading solutions provider PTC India.

• PFS has already approached the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for the planned stake divestment. The proposed stake sale is part of efforts to comply with the regulatory requirements . As per the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) norms, an entity trading in electricity cannot have more than five% in a power exchange. Without divulging the names of prospective buyers, sources said the share sale by PFS would also help allay concerns of the investors about the overall power sector and the power exchange business, in particular.

• Last fiscal, PFS had sold 4.88% stake in IEX at a price of Rs 115.41 per share and brought down its shareholding to 21.12%. The stake sale and fetched PFS about Rs 14 crore at that time. Other key shareholders of IEX include Adani Enterprises, Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), Lanco Infratech, Reliance Energy, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and Tata Power Company. A non-banking finance company, PFS has sanctioned loans worth Rs 2,255 crore so far this fiscal. The company posted a 11% increase in profit after tax at Rs 22.64 crore for the three months ended September .

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