Adani Power Ltd has posted the increase in total income from Rs. 15511.70 mn for the quarter ended September 30, 2012 to Rs. 31080.30 mn for the quarter ended September 30, 2013.
Adani Power Ltd has posted a net loss after taxes and Minority Interest of Rs. (10719.10) million for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 as compared to net loss of Rs. (2609.10) mn for the quarter ended September 30, 2012.
The power sector is in crisis, thanks to misplaced priorities and opportunism in policymaking, particularly at the state level. Two decades after tentative reforms and opening up in the sector, policy stays fixated on generation capacity, never mind huge revenue leakage in power distribution, lack of capacity in transmission and avoidable , policy-induced shortage of coal and gas.
Already, with several state power utilities financially moribund and simply lacking creditworthiness for increased offtake, multiple power producers have announced stalling of operations; entire projects are now on the back burner.
And yet, the power ministry's penchant for new generation activity remains quite undiminished . It is currently soliciting investor interest for two ultra-mega power projects, one each in Tamil Nadu and Odisha, with a combined investment requirement of about Rs 50,000 crore, which are slated to supply to several states.
But the fact remains that several of the state utilities expected to procure the power have run up huge losses and outstandings because of reckless politically-mandated tariffs, attendant giveaways and plain open theft of power, with the powers that be turning a Nelson's eye to the matter.
What is worse is that the policy establishment seems, verily, to have lost interest in arresting the mounting commercial losses in distribution. The annual Economic Survey no longer gives details of the massive forfeiture involved, although a line buried deep in the text does mention, more as an afterthought, that the yearly distribution losses amount to as much as 1% of gross national output,or about Rs 1,00,00 crore.
Itclearly makes little sense to coagulate big-ticket investments when the monies horrendously fettered away, mostly by way of power theft, are twice that. The runaway losses would surely short-circuit the entire power sector, with grave economy-wide implications. Hence the vital need for vision and proactive policy to stem distribution losses and stamp out routine theft, invest in transmission and unclog coal and gas supply.
The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) has ordered all Discoms not to impose late payment surcharge upon those consumers who have been unable to settle their dues because of slow internet connections at billing counters.
The order, issued by the commission a day ago, comes as great relief for thousands of consumers in Noida and Ghaziabad who had been complaining of difficulties in paying bills for the past one month.
Residents had complained that they were unable to make payments despite standing in serpentine queues at billing centres for hours.
They said that though they were not at fault for being unable to make bill payments, the discom, Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (PVVNL), was imposing penalties on them. "It's very unfair to expect consumers to pay penalties when they have to return without making payments despite standing at the queues for hours," said OP Sharma, a resident of Sector 16 in Noida. The discom had told consumers that bill payments were affected due to a state-wide malfunction of the internet system of the power corporation.
The commission has directed discoms to extend the last dates for payment of dues. The orders were issued after a petition was filed by UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad, a state-level electricity consumers' body. The petition had been filed after similar problems were experienced by power consumers in Lucknow.
Discom officials said that work is on to fix the problem of internet connectivity. "Consumers will be intimated about the revisions done to their due dates of payments," said a senior discom official.
Pune based, My Eco Energy has announced its foray into the bio-fuel industry which is involved in the manufacturing of waste to bio-diesel, a non-petroleum based fuel.
Bio-diesel is made from from waste materials including vegetable oils and animal fat available for consumer and commercial use.
As said by the company, "Looking at the current scenario of the dependency on non-renewable fuel systems, there is a growing demand for a non-petroleum based fuel. It is this demand that Bio-Diesel by My Eco Energy addresses."
The company offers the consumers a completely natural, high-performing and low-environment depleting fuel option for their Diesel fuelled vehicles. Bio-diesel could be efficiently utilized by transport companies as well as across machinery equipment like electricity generators, industrial boilers & furnaces.
The company will initially cater primarily to consumers in Maharashtra and neighboring states through 20 distributorships. Over time, it plans to expand its network to over 250 dealer owned retail pumps in the state over the next year.
The company said that the fuel could either be used alone or blended with conventional petro-diesel in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles.
Produced from various feed stocks including waste vegetable oils and non-edible oils like used cooking oil and acid oils and tallow, the company said that this was an environmentally safe, low polluting fuel suitable for most diesel engines.
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Essar Projects, the group company of Essar, has withdrawn its application from Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission for grant of power distribution license in Gurgaon's Municipal Corporation area.
Essar Projects had earlier sought license to distribute power in municipal area of Gurgaon in Haryana as the second energy supplier in the district and had filed the application as per the provision laid under section 14 read with section 15 of Electricity Act, in the month of March this year.
If the license had been granted to Essar Projects, it would have been the second distribution license holder after state-owned Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) for supplying power to energy consumers within municipal limits of Gurgaon.
Gurgaon circle is a very potential area in terms of revenue generation and consumer load. DHBVN generates almost 50 per cent of its revenue from Gurgaon circle only out of its total five circles. Gurgoan has power consumer base of 3.60 lakh with average power load of 700-800 MW.
Pegging the capital outlay on this project at Rs 1,519 crore, the company in its application had said that it would set up its own distribution network for supplying power to the consumers.
The company had kept the cost of power from own generation and purchase at Rs 5.19 per unit with hike of 3-4 per cent per annum.
The Electricity Act, 2003 provides for second power distribution license provided, the company has its own power distribution related infrastructure.
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Tata Power Solar has commissioned the 10 MW Solar Power Project at Chitradurga, Karnataka for the Jindal Aluminum Ltd (JAL) in the timeframe of four months from the land allotment date.
The plant so far is the largest in the Karnataka and is expected to produce around 18 Million kWh annually.
The plant consists a total of 48,000 multi crystalline modules, each with an average output of 240Wp, has been installed on the 52 acres non-agricultural land in Kalamarahalli, Chitradurga, Karnataka.
After land conversion process, it was developed into a solar farm with 16,000 foundations laid to support the structural framework of 2,000 mounts within a span of 2 months.
Tata Power Solar has designed and built more than 70 MW of grid connected projects to-date. Some of its recent notable projects are: 17 MW power plant in Mithapur, Gujarat, 5MW GMDC project in Bhuj and 10MW Emami project in Charanka in Gujarat.
Recently, the Company bagged a 50 MW solar power plant project from NTPC in Rajgarh, MP & 28 MW solar power project from Tata Power in Satara, Maharashtra.
According to a report by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Karnataka faced an energy deficit of 17.8 percent. As part of the RPO targets fixed by the state electricity regulators, Karnataka is mandated to purchase 0.25% from solar energy as a percentage of its total procurement during a year. JAL has entered into a 25 year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) to provide power at Rs. 8.25 per unit flat for the whole tenure of 25 years.
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Alstom T&D India will supply a power transformer package for Nabinagar Power Generating Com Ltd' (NPGCL) super thermal power project located in Bihar. The project is part of a bulk tender which has been set up to accelerate the pace of thermal capacity addition.
This order, worth approximately Rs 105.5 crore (14 million), covers design, engineering, manufacture, supply, testing, erection and commissioning of generator transformers and associated power transformers and shunt reactor. The Nabingar power transformer package is due to be delivered by October 2017.
All equipment will be manufactured by Alstom T&D India's transformer manufacturing and testing facility in Naini (Uttar Pradesh), the company said in a statement.
Alstom builds fast train and the highest capacity automated metro in the world, provides turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind, and it offers a wide range of solutions for power transmission, with a focus on smart grids. The Group employs 93,000 people in around 100 countries. It had sales of over 20 billion and booked close to 24 billion in orders in 2012/13.
Alstom T&D India, has a strong portfolio of products, solutions and services, comprising the entire range of transmission equipment up to extra and ultra high voltages (765 kV and beyond) including air-insulated switchgear (AIS) and locally manufactured power transformers and gas-insulated switchgear (GIS). It also provides power electronics solutions (HVDC, FACTS) to create super highways and offers highly advanced power management Smart Grid solutions for transmission and distribution including renewable energies integration. With over 3,500 employees and eight world class manufacturing units, Alstom T&D India is future ready to support the rapidly evolving transmission sector in India.
The Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant at Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu has started generating power from its Unit 1 and produced around 160 MW of Power on October 22, 2013.
Unit 1 having capacity of 1000 MW is a new type of reactor built in Russia called Voda Voda Energo Reactor (VVER). It became critical in the midnight of July 13 and since then, various tests and procedures have been conducted to resolve problems with the valves.
It is the first pressurized water reactor belonging to light water reactor category in the country. Russian authorities claim they have such reactors functioning in Ukraine, China and a few other nations. In Ukraine alone, there are six units of 1,000MW capacity at Zaporizhzhia, which are similar to that of the Kudankulam unit.
As said by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), currently out of the 1000 MW capacity of this Unit, 160 MW is connected to the grid which will be increased after checking the generators and conducting other tests. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has given its nod for 500MW and more power will be connected to the grid after the tests.
The significant synchronization process came as Prime Minister wound up his visit to Moscow after talks about possible future agreements for the supply of two more Russian reactors for the Kudankulam plant. While agreements have been signed for two 1,000MW units, talks are on with Russia to clinch a deal for two more 1,000MW units. When commissioned, the nuclear power plant would be the biggest in India in terms of capacity.
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Ministry of New & Renewable Energy is planning to launch Phase 2, Batch I of the National Solar Mission (NSM) which aims development of around 750 MW of Solar PV Projects.
Under the NSM Phase 2, Batch I, the Government is considering to provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) maximum upto 30% of the Project Cost or INR 2.5 Crs/ MW whichever is lower.
Some of the major aspects of this program as per the draft guidelines issued MNRE are as below:
Capacity: total 750 MW
PPA Process: The allocation process, signing of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and handing out of VGF will all be handled by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
Tariff:
Viability Gap Funding
Key Concerns
As said by the MNRE, the bidding documents are all ready and waiting for the Cabinet approval for the disbursement of grant.
According to sources, the program is supposed to be launched in the next 10 days.
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National Hydro Power Corporation is planning to join hands with private sector companies for the development of hydro power projects in the country and has held preliminary discussions with various independent power producers.
NHPC would be looking to partner with private players to develop green field hydro power projects where construction is yet to start. The plan also comes against the backdrop of many private players finding it difficult to move ahead with hydro projects.
Expression of Interest with detailed guidelines have been floated with regard to proposed partnerships with private entities.
Projects will be taken up only when promoters of private sector projects are willing to offer majority stake to NHPC. However, the planned 51% stake stipulation could be diluted since in certain projects, the respective state government itself would be holding at least 26% stake.
NHPC is also considering to diversify into thermal, solar and wind energy projects.
As part of diversification, the company would develop a 1,320 MW thermal power project along with Chhattisgarh Government in that state. It is also planning to develop grid connected 50 MW wind and 100 MW solar power projects.
Currently NHPC has an installed power generation capacity of 5,702 MW.
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