Moser Baer sells solar PV worth Rs 100 crore in Japan…

 

Moser Baer Solar, a subsidiary of Moser Baer India, has crossed more than Rs 100 crore PV module sales in the Japan market during April-December 2013," the company said in a statement.

Moser Baer Solar has been exporting solar PV modules to Japan for last four years and the volume of shipments has increased significantly in last nine months, the statement said.

"Japan traditionally is amongst the world's most quality conscious markets and we are proud to have established an Indian brand in high technology space here. The opportunity is big and we look forward to further our commitments in Japan's journey towards promoting clean energy," Vivek Chaturvedi, Chief Marketing Officer, Moser Baer Solar said in the release.

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TPG Growth cuts stake in clean energy producer Greenko Group…

 

TPG Growth, an arm of global private equity major TPG, has sold around a quarter of its stake in clean energy producer Greenko Group plc nearly four years after its initial investment.

TPG Growth sold a little over 2 per cent stake over the last six months in London’s AIM-listed Greenko, reducing its holding to 5.96 per cent.

According to VCCircle estimate, the stake has been sold for $6 million to $8.5 million. A large chunk of the stake has been sold earlier this month as Greenko's scrip reached over 170 pence per unit.

In January 2010, TPG Growth led a $116-million round of funding in Greenko Group plc. The PE firm will pick up a little over 10 per cent stake for around $35 million. TPG's remaining stake is worth $26 million, according to Greenko's current trading price.

Shares of Greenko were trading at 178.75 pence, up 2.14 per cent on Monday morning in London.

Greenko Group plc reported a 74.6 per cent increase in operational capacity from 244 MW in March 2013 to 426 MW by end of September 2013.

The company, backed by a slew a private equity funds, reported an 18 per cent increase in revenues to €27.9 million for the six-month period. On a constant currency basis, revenues grew by 32.4 per cent.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 49 per cent to €24.6 million, despite being affected by adverse currency movements and lower generation from biomass assets, said the company. Adjusted profit after tax increased 151 per cent to €10.5 million from €4.2 million during the same period in 2012.

Greenko Group plc raised $150 million or £100 million from GIC

Singapore, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, last year. Greenko, one of India’s largest independent power producers in the renewable energy space, raised money through its Mauritius arm.

Other investors in Greenko include Aloe Private Equity, Standard Chartered Private Equity, GE Energy Financial Services and Capital Group.

Greenko has a portfolio of wind, run-of-river hydropower, natural gas and biomass assets. The company is now focused on building new utility scale wind farms and hydropower projects across India. Greenko's goal is to reach 1,000 MW of operational capacity in 2015 and approximately 2,000 MW in 2018.

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Govt plans to offer 4 coal blocks in first tranche of auction…

 

The Centre is planning to offer four coal blocks to power sector out of the proposed ten to be auctioned in the first lot through competitive bidding in the first tranche.

"We are planning to offer four coal blocks to the power sector and other six for non-power sectors," coal secretary S K Srivastava said.

He said that in another one month the government was hoping to concretise the road map for the auction.

The ministry was learnt to have shortlisted some 29 blocks that would be put for auction through competitive bidding route.

Srivastava said the government would auction the coal blocks after deciding on the sectors to be offered.

It was yet to finalise the sectors for which the other six blocks would be offered in the first tranche, he said.

The government, in the past, had expressed confidence in completing the auction by March.

The Coal ministry was also in the process of finalising new bidding rules and a draft Request For Proposal (RFP) for public feedback had already been issued.

The draft RFP said that if an allottee was found to have directly or indirectly engaged in a corrupt, fraudulent, coercive, undesirable or restrictive practice in the bidding, then it won't be eligible to participate in any tender or RFP for another five years.

Incidentally, the ministry was trying to incorporate strong clauses to prevent any corrupt practice.

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Maharashtra slashes power tariff by 20 per cent…

 

In a major pre-election initiative, the Maharashtra government on Monday slashed power tariff by 20 per cent across all sectors.

The move will provide relief to domestic, commercial, industrial and agricultural consumers, according to an announcement by the Chief Minister's Office.

The 20 per cent cut will be applicable for domestic consumers - around 1.30 crore in the state - using up to 300 units per month.

The move drew criticism from the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The decision will be implemented in the entire state including north-east parts of Mumbai which get power from the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB).

"A decision on the other areas of the city - like north-west and south Mumbai - which are serviced by private suppliers like Tata Power and Reliance Energy shall be taken next week," an official said.

The MSEB has a total of 2.14 crore consumers in Maharashtra, of which 1.56 crore are domestic users, a MSEB spokesperson said.

Of these 1.56 crore, a whopping 1.30 crore fall in the below 300-units per month range, making them eligible for the 20 percent slashed tariff.

Maharashtra also has 3.60 million agriculture consumers, 1.60 million commercial users, 300,000 industrial and 100,000 powerlooms.

Certain other consumers like the railways are no included in the above list, the spokesperson said.

The 20 per cent reduction in tariff would mean a loss of around Rs.706 crore per month for MSEB.

However, the government will provide subsidy of Rs.606 crore per month or Rs.7,272 crore per annum to the MSEB.

The remaining Rs.100 crore per month or Rs.1,200 crore per annum will be borne by the MSEB.

Since the past fortnight, Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam has launched protests demanding reduction in power tariff in Mumbai and other parts in the interest of ordinary consumers.

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Mega Plan to Generate Power from Sewage by Bangalore Sewerage Board...

 

In its efforts to minimise power bills, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is preparing a road map to generate 100 MW of power from over 1,000 MLD of sewage generated in the city.

BWSSB Chief Engineer S Krishnappa said, “As we are consuming around 60 million units of power every month, we are incurring a lot of expenditure on electricity bills.”

“According to our estimates, we can generate around 100 MW power from the sewage generated in the city. It will be sufficient to meet 75 per cent of our  (power) needs.”

14 STPs Identified for Project

Krishnappa said BWSSB has identified 14 sewage treatment plants (STP) where methane gas can be generated from the sewage.

As the STPs are in good condition, BWSSB can start generating methane by constructing a digester near them.

“The biggest challenge is to ensure that the methane generated in the digester is pure in nature. If not, the generator that burns methane will be destroyed very soon,” Krishnappa said.

BWSSB has already initiated the process to produce electricity from sewage at one of the STPs in Hebbal valley by entering into an agreement with England-based Mott MacDonald Ltd.

Mott MacDonald Ltd team leader, Ian P Taylor said, “We have already imported the machinery required to generate 1 MW of power and initiated the process to construct a digester near one of the STPs. We should be in a position to generate electricity soon.”

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Delhi discoms offer to surrender surplus power to state govt...

 

Facing allegations of selling a surplus 1,000 mw to group companies at below-market rates to supress profits, BSES discoms have urged the Delhi government to take over management of unused power so that the controversy can come to an end.

Despite the Delhi High court quashing the regulatory order that said discoms could make profit of Rs 3,577 crore a year by selling surplus power alone, consumer groups continue to cite the order to bolster their case that discoms are manipulating electricity trading deals. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission had arrived at the profit figure by assuming electricity price of Rs 5.75 a unit in 2007.

On the other hand, discoms maintain that power is surplus only during non-peak hours when prevailing market rates are low. So, prices are usually lower than rates at which power is purchased from central generating stations under long-term power purchase agreements ( PPAs).

In a letter to Delhi power secretary Puneet Goel, discoms have said they sell surplus electricity through transparent mechanisms like power exchanges, trading and banking arrangements and unscheduled interchange (UI), where all transactions are accounted by the state load despatch centre in compliance with the guidelines laid down by the regulator. Anyway, the discoms have further said that they cannot be held responsible for terms of the PPAs that were signed by the erstwhile Delhi Vidyut Board prior to its privatisation in 2002, and assigned to them in 2007.

“In the interest of transparency and to avoid baseless allegations and unnecessary controversy, the BSES discoms request the Delhi government to take over the entire responsibility for ensuring adequate power to meet the peak demand and sell off-peak power in the most optimal manner,” said the letter sent by Gopal K Saxena, CEO, BSES Rajdhani Power. BSES Rajdhani Power and BSES Yamuna Power together cater to two-thirds of electricity consumers in the national capital.

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India, UAE to cooperate for solar, wind energy...

 

India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed an agreement to enhance cooperation in renewable energy, especially in the areas of solar and wind power.

India's Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah and Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, minister of state and the UAE's special envoy for energy and climate change, Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in these areas in Abu Dhabi.

Both the countries also agreed to form a Joint Working Group for better coordination through joint research on subjects of mutual interest, exchange and training of scientific and technical personnel, exchange of available scientific and technologies information and data, according to a statement released here Sunday by the ministry of new and renewable energy.

India and UAE have also agreed to cooperate in organisation of workshops, seminars and working groups, transfer of know-how, technology and equipment, on non-commercial basis.

Abdullah, who is on an official visit to Abu Dhabi, held talks with UAE minister Al Jaber.

Abdullah briefed the UAE minister on the progress made by India in renewable energy with special reference to the National Solar Mission launched in 2010 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

He also briefed the minister on India's efforts in promoting energy for remote and un-electrified areas, the statement said.

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Renewable Energy Sector in India may miss target 2 years in a row...

 

The country’s renewable energy sector is likely to miss its capacity addition target for the second year in a row. As against the annual target of 4,325 MW, only 1,922 MW has been achieved during the first nine months of the current fiscal, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

However, amid concern over slow progress, the installed capacity for wind power has crossed 20,000 MW this fiscal, while the overall grind-interactive renewable power capacity is set to cross 30,000 MW shortly. With the addition of 1,922 MW in nine months (marginally higher when compared with 1,763 MW in the year-ago period), India’s total grid-interactive renewable energy capacity addition stood at 29,989 MW as on December 31, 2013.

During April-December 2013, wind and solar segments contributed 1096 MW and 495 MW respectively, while the rest was contributed by small hydro, bagasse co-generation, biomass and waste-to-energy categories. Besides, 67 mw of off-grid/ captive power generation capacity from different renewable energy sources were also added during the period.

Presently, wind makes up 67 per cent of India’s total installed capacity of green power. Of the total cumulative capacity of 29,989 MW, wind sector contributed 20,149 MW, followed by small hydro power at 3,763 MW, bagasse cogeneration power at 2,513 MW, solar at 2,180 MW, biomass at 1,285 MW, and waste-to-energy at 99 MW. The cumulative off-grid/ captive power generation capacity from different renewable energy sources in the country stood at 945 MW by the end of December 2013.

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With CCI approval, Coal India on track to boost output by 50%...

 

India’s rising coal imports, increasingly a reason for the country’s wide trade and current account deficits, may be reined in considerably in the next few years, report Raj Kumar Ray and Aftab Ahmed in New Delhi. With the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) approval in hand, the railways is set to complete work on three rail projects by end 2016, helping Coal India and its arms evacuate the black gold from some of their big mines and transport them to industrial hubs. The facility will help increase domestic coal output by 250 million tonnes or nearly 50%.

The three projects — Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia (Hazaribagh) triple line for the North Karanpura Coalfield in Jharkhand, Jharsuguda-Barpalli double line for Ib Valley coalfield in Orissa and Bhupdeopur-Raigur-Mand in Chhattisgarh — were stalled for nearly a decade due to various reasons. With the CCI clearance, work has begun at some of the sites, a senior official told.

“The clearance for these railway lines would be a milestone in terms of efforts to step up domestic production of coal. The rail connectivity has the potential to generate over 250 million tonnes of coal annually, which is almost half of what CIL produces now,” said a coal ministry official, asking not to be named.

India’s domestic coal output, mainly from Coal India, has grown slowly from 431 million tonnes (mt) in 2006-07 to 576 mt last fiscal, while imports more than trebled from 41.5 mt to 138 mt as power plants, steel and other units consumed more fuel to aid growth in Asia’s third-largest economy. Coal imports as a percentage of GDP almost doubled from 0.5% in 2006-07 to 0.9% in 2012-13, and was one of the main reasons along with oil and gold imports for widening the current account deficit.

While many captive coal blocks allotted to private players failed to take off, the pressure has mounted on Coal India to raise output. CIL has often blamed delays in green clearances, land acquisition and lack of rail links from pithead to industrial units as major reason for not being able to scale up its operations.

In this context, the three rail projects will address much of the coal shortage in coming years. The Jharsuguda-Barpalli rail line is essential for transportation of coal from the Ib Valley coalfield of Mahanadi Coalfields with a potential of 90 million tonnes per annum. The North Karanpura Coalfield covers an area of 1,230 square kilometres and has total coal reserves of 13.1 billion tonnes with a potential output of 70 mt annually. The Mand Raigarh Coalfield can supply 100 mt of coal annually once the rail link is built.

The environmental clearance for Jharsuguda-Barpalli was given last month and the project is likely to be completed by June 2016, an official said.

The Rs 2,345-crore Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia project has now got environmental clearance and land acquisition for some stretches is under way. The project is likely to be operational by December 2016.

In the case of the Rs 2,500-crore Bhupdeopur-Raigur-Mand line, the CCI/CCEA has resolved the issue and a special purpose vehicle led by Ircon will be set up by September 2016.

The three railway link projects are a part of the three inter-state rail corridor projects proposed by CIL that are dedicated to coal evacuation in the Naxal-affected areas in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. CIL’s total investment in these three corridors are of the order of Rs 6,000 crore.

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11 TN Hydro Power Dams to Get New Lease of Life Under WB Project...

 

Eleven hydro power dams in the Tamil Nadu State would get a new lease of life under the first phase of the Rs. 745.49-crore World Bank project, a senior official from the Water Resources Organisation (WRO) said.

The official told that 104 of the 127 dams, including 38 Tamil Nadu Electricity Board dams generating hydro-power, would be covered under the funds to enhance them for irrigation and generation of drinking water and hydro-power.

The project would be implemented in four phases and would be completed by 2018. In the first phase, Adavinainar Koil dam, Vadakupachayar dam, Nambiar dam, Kodumudiyar dam and Manimuthar dam in Tirunelveli district, Poigayar dam in Kanyakumari district, Vidur dam and Gomukhinadhi in Villupuram district, Mordhana in Vellore district, Siddhamalli in Ariyalur district and Kodayanar in Dindigul district would be covered.

A total of Rs. 63 crore has been allocated for the purpose, a WRO official said. He added that the technical and administrative procedures had been completed and work was about to be started. The main aim is to enhance the strength of the dams to withstand floods. Most of the dams were scheduled to undergo maintenance as they were 40 to 50 years old. The project would adhere to World Bank procedures.

“First we will be studying the internal behaviour of the dam after which it will be strengthened to withstand natural calamities for a long period of time. A hydrology study is also being conducted simultaneously,” the WRO official said, adding, that steel shutter conditions to regulate floods will also be checked and re-strengthened or replaced depending upon the requirement.

Six hydro-electric dams will also be covered under the project. These include Avalanche dam, Glenmorgan dam, Mukurthy dam and Porthimund dam in Nilgiris district, Kadamparai dam in Coimbatore district and Servalar dam in Tirunelveli district. The WRO official said that the project would also cover the 107-year-old Pechhiparai dam besides 25 others in the second phase. The preliminary process has already been started, the official said.

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