Tneb, Texas Utility To Sign Mou

The Tamilnadu State Electricity Board (TNEB) will sign an MoU with its counterpart in Texas for operation and maintenance of its network and generating facilities.

Texas Utility and TNEB will sign up for technology transfer and specialised training for the electricity board personnel by Texas Utility.

The MoU is being signed under the aegis of USAID and will be funded almost entirely with soft loans. According to Confederation of Indian Industry, CII sources, this will be at a cost to the electricity board.

The MoU will be signed during the four-day biennial Energy Summit that CII is organising in the city in the second week of November.

Few other states like Karnataka and Haryana have lined up for similar MoUs.

The Ahmedabad Electricity Corporation has entered into a more limited arrangement with Resource Management Association, a US company based in India, for demand side management.

The MoUs are with American electrical utilities primarily because the programme is sponsored by USAID and the US Energy Association.

CII Southern region has also constituted a task force comprising independent power producers, government and TNEB representatives to sort out the policy hurdles that are holding up many of the private power projects in the state. The task force is expected to submit its report by the middle of next month and will be one of the highlights of the Energy Summit 98, CII said.

Addressing newspersons here today, chairman Energy Summit, R Seshasayee, said the regional chapter of CII pioneered the concept of energy audit.

The programme has proved to be so beneficial to industry that on a recurring basis, savings work out to over Rs 45 crore annually.

"Over 100 industries have come forward to do the energy audit," he

said. It has also been made mandatory in many states including Tamilnadu.