Gujarat's first solar rooftop project generates 1.2 million units in six months...

 

Gujarat's first roof-top solar energy project in Gandhinagar that started operating this year has so far generated a total of 1.2 million units of solar power.

In the first six months of operations, nearly 260 small residential households participated in the first phase of the project in Gandhinagar with a total generation potential of one megawatt,stated an official release from Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) which is in-charge of developing and implementing the rooftop solar concept in Gujarat.

To facilitate this partnership, Gujarat Power Corporation has opened a facilitation centre at Gandhinagar where households willing to offer their roof can enroll for an initial assessment of the technical suitability of the rooftops. Till date over 760 KW of residential leases have been signed by the developers with 260 residents in Gandhinagar. The rooftop owners get at least Rs. 3 per unit of energy generated as a rooftop rental. So far, about 3.2 MW of solar rooftopsystems  have already been installed in the state's capital.

"The total installation capacity under the Gandhinagar project is five megawatts. Out of this, four megawatts will be installed on government buildings and a total of one megawatt will be installed on private residential homes. We are now taking this successful program to Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Mehsana and Vadodara in the second phase where we plan to generate 25 megawatt of energy", says Gujarat minister for Energy, Saurabh Patel.

80 per cent of the capacity for the Gandhinagar Project will be made available from government buildings while the balance 20 per cent of the capacity will be installed on residential premises.

Selected after a competitive bidding process, two experienced companies -Azure Power and Avantha Sun Edison are developing the project in Gandhinagar.

The two companies are now installing and maintaining solar photovoltaic systems on rooftops of homes and government buildings. The solar photovoltaic systems convert direct sunlight into electricity which is fed into the electrical grid.Under this model, the solar power generated by rooftops is sold by Azure and Sun Edison at a competitively determined tariff to Torrent Power - a private distribution company that operates the electricity grid in the capital city.

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CERC releases draft multi-year tariffs for 2014-2019...

 

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission  has released, draft regulations  which will decide the multi year power tariffs for the  years between 2014-19.

While this is the draft, it will set the basis of the  regulations that will  impact all regulated power generating & transmission  companies like NTPC, NHPC, Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam, Torrent Power etc, whose tariff rates are set to get more cheaper The main highlight of this draft is that power tariffs acc to this, are set to get cheaper.

This new draft is set to remove the tax arbitrage which existed when companies like NTPC charged a higher tax rate from its customers leading to  a tax arbitrage for NTPC alont at 500 crore a year. Norms for 2009-14 allowed utilities to retain tax benefits applicable to power projects by recovering higher tax from beneficiaries than the actual income tax paid.

However, the new norms limit the recovery of tax to the actual tax paid by utilities. Tariffs are thus set to get cheaper with lower tax arbitrage. CERC has also changed the Operating and maintenance expenses marginally, which according to analysts was  set to increase bringing in relief for power generation companies like NTPC.

However, with a marginal change in the operating and maintenance expenses, companies like NTPC will not see any major relief.

However, low increase in O&M expenses will increase  the efficiency of power companies  leading to  lower tariff rates. This time according to CERC, The incentive structure for generation projects has been changed from earlier plant based (for PAF > normative PAF of 85%) to generation linked. while NTPC is still examining this, and prima facie find it positive, it could mean better and lower tariffs going forward.

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Torrent Power funded Gujarat smart-grid project: Ecolibrium...

 

Ecolibrium Energy, the energy management company floated by the Soni family, has said the smart-grid project implemented in the Gujarat Secretariat was funded by Torrent Power, a private sector distribution company, and that the state nodal agency for the energy sector, Gujarat Energy Development Agency (Geda), did not make any financial contribution to the project.

According to Chintan Soni, managing director, "To implement the project, a tri-partite MoU (memorandum of understanding) was signed between Torrent Power, Geda and Ecolibrium Energy, where it has been clearly laid out that Geda will not incur any expenses and will merely provide access to its facilities for installation of the project."

Soni further clarified, "We would also like to hereby reiterate that we did not receive our first project from Gujarat government."

When Ecolibrium approached Torrent Power for funding the project, the latter agreed. According to Soni, a separate agreement was signed with Torrent Power to detail the understanding.

Soni said the company started development of the smart grid solution in 2009-10, and had approached Geda for piloting of the technology. "We got to know about the Renewable Energy Search programme supported by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and approached CIIE (Center for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship) for incubation support by presenting our solution of smart grid along with our business plan in October 2009."

The screening committee at Renewable Energy Search comprising industry, academia and representatives from MNRE, accepted the proposal for incubation support at CIIE under the Renewable Energy Search programme. "To help expedite the project, in January 2010 CIIE wrote to Geda requesting it to give us a chance to implement the project. The project was carried out to pilot a useful concept - which actually resulted in savings for the Gujarat government without any investment of resources from Geda," he added.

Ecolibrium has since received a separate smart micro-grid pilot project from MNRE, which has been implemented at its Solar Energy Centre in Gurgaon.

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Torrent Power has been handed over the Power Distribution System of Kanpur…

Power India found that the Torrent Power Limited has been handed over with the Power Distribution System of Kanpur by Uttar Pradesh Government.

 

Torrent Power had earlier bagged power distribution of Agra also.

 

UP chief secretary Javed Usmani had a meeting with officials of the Torrent Power and the energy department. During the meeting, the chief secretary asked the energy department to reassess the revenue recovery rates by May 10 before power distribution network of the industrial city is handed over to the company.

 

In May 2009, UP Government had signed a memorandum of understanding with Torrent under the franchisee system stipulating that the company will be responsible for distribution of power and realization of revenue in Agra.

 

As per the MOU, Torrent will be responsible for distribution of power and realization of revenue in Agra. The move was taken as the revenue of state electricity companay reduced drastically due to high power pilferage.

 

In fact, the average recovery (technically called through-rate) had dipped to around Rs 1.90 per unit. But under an agreement, Torrent was supposed to recover revenue for the state government at the rate of Rs 2.02 per unit. Any further realization would have been company's profit.

 

The state government has also decided to examine if the company could be given an extension for setting up a 1,320 MW power plant in Sandila. The company had entered into an agreement with the state government in 2011 for setting up a thermal power plant through the MoU route. The company was supposed to get the project set up within 18 months. However, that does not appear to be happening even as the energy department reviews the project.

 

The chief secretary has asked the department to submit its report by May 5. Interestingly, this is quite similar to what JP did in case of 1,980 MW Bara thermal power plant in Allahabad which was allotted to it in 2009 by the Mayawati government. As per the contract, the plant was supposed to start generating electricity by 2013. But the developer in 2011 got the timeline extended till 2015. The same appears to happen with the proposed 1320 Mw power plant in Sandila.

 

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