Page 12 - Electricity Sector

Power Grid Corporation bags 2 inter-state electricity transmission projects

State-owned Power Grid Corporate has bagged two inter-state electricity transmission projects under a tariff-based competitive bidding. Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd has been declared as the successful bidder under tariff-based competitive bidding to establish two inter-state transmission system on build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis, a BSE filing stated. It bagged the project named Western Region Expansion Scheme- XXVII (WRES-XXVII). The project comprises establishment of a 400-kV D/C transmission line passing through Chhattisgarh and bays extension works at two existing sub-stations. Besides, it also bagged a project named Western Region Expansion Scheme- XXVIII (WRES-XXVIII) & XXIX (WRES-XXIX). The project comprises bays extension works, including creation of 220kV voltage at two existing sub-stations in Chhattisgarh. Power Grid Corporation received the Letters of Intent (LoIs) on 2nd March.

New thermal plants: A reality check

The quest to secure India's energy future should not lead to suboptimal policy solutions

Gencos with high input cost allowed to sell power at up to Rs 50 per unit

Power generating companies that incur high variable costs due to fuel expenses and other charges will soon able to sell electricity at a price of up to Rs 50 per unit on energy exchanges. The relaxation in norms by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) will provide relief to three category of power generating companies (gencos) -- those running their plants on expensive natural gas (RLNG), imported coal and using Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). At present, there is a price ceiling of Rs 12 per unit in the Day Ahead Market (DAM) on the energy exchanges. With the ceiling, gencos having high variable costs for operating their plants are generally not keen on selling electricity on the energy exchanges and this in turn results in stranded power generation capacity. Against this backdrop as well as the upcoming summer season, the CERC, earlier this month, allowed the introduction of a new segment -- High Price Day Ahead Market (HP-DAM) -- on the energy exchanges ...

39 hydro projects under implementation; 9 stalled: Power ministry

As many as 39 hydro projects totalling 14,623.5 MW capacity are under implementation in the country while nine out of these are stalled, Parliament was informed on Thursday. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Power Minister R K Singh said steps are being taken by developers/government for revival of the stalled projects. "39 Hydro Electric Projects (above 25 MW) aggregating to 14,623.5 MW are under implementation in the country. Out of these, 30 projects aggregating to 13,387.5 MW are under active construction and likely to be commissioned by 2026-27 and 9 projects aggregating to 1,236 MW are presently stalled (as on December 31, 2022)," Singh said. In order to fast-track the development of HEPs in northeastern region, a basin-wise indication of projects has been undertaken by CPSUs, he said. As on December 31, 2022, total 211 HEPs aggregating to an installed capacity of 46,850.15 MW were in operation in the country, he added. In another reply to the House, Singh said that at ..

Pak minister says cyber attack could be behind nationwide power breakdown

Pakistan's Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir said the government is probing the massive January 22 electricity outage across the country from different angles

Pak suffers nationwide power outage after grid failure: Power ministry

Pakistan faced a major power breakdown on Monday due to a "frequency variation" in the national grid, leaving millions of people in large parts of the country, including capital Islamabad and financial hub Karachi, without electricity. According to the Ministry of Energy, the system of frequency of the national grid went down at 7:34 am local time, resulting in the breakdown. System maintenance work is progressing rapidly, it tweeted. Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir said the restoration work was going on. "I can assure you that power will be fully restored across the country within the next 12 hours, he was quoted as saying by Geo News. Explaining the failure, he said the authorities shut down the power generation system at night due to lower demand in winter to save fuel costs. But when the systems were turned on in the morning, frequency variation and voltage fluctuation were observed in the south of the country somewhere between Dadu and Jamshoro resulting in shutting down of

State-run DVC seeks electricity buyers from brownfield coal-fired units

India's state-run Damodar Valley Corp (DVC) on Tuesday invited power distribution utilities and industries to buy power from 5 brownfield coal-fired units it is expanding

Coal India should aim to provide electricity at just price: Chairman

State-owned CIL chief Pramod Agrawal has said that the coal behemoth should aim at providing electricity to the county at "just price" as 80 per cent of the company's supplies is directed towards coal-based power plants. Coal India (CIL) accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal supply and three quarters of the country's power generation is coal-based. In a recent message to its employees, Agrawal who is the chairman and managing director of CIL said that "our role is to supply assured energy at affordable costs". Stating that as there is a sizeable scope for energy expansion in the country for the next few decades, he said that the company has a greater responsibility to shoulder. "Aim for even loftier heights in the last quarter of the financial year and make FY23 momentous by shattering the annual targets as well. And, not rest there. Once we achieve 700 MT production target that should be a benchmark base for further growth," he said. Agrawal asked the employees to make

Sri Lanka to implement cost-reflective tariff formula for electricity

Amid the ongoing economic crisis, Sri Lanka's cabinet of ministers has approved the implementation of a cost-reflective electricity tariff formula

Employees of 3 state-owned power firms go on strike; Maha invokes MESMA

Thousands of employees of three state-owned power companies went on a 72-hour strike on Wednesday to protest against the privatisation of power firms even as the government invoked the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA), a leader from the employees' union said. The government has asked the officials concerned to take all necessary steps to ensure normal supply of electricity in the state. Thousands of employees of the three companies were participating in the strike which started from midnight, Krushna Bhoir, general secretary of the Maharashtra State Electricity Workers' Federation, told PTI. The protest was going on peacefully across the state, he said, adding the protesting employees were sitting in pandals erected outside their establishments. Bhoir said the state government has called them for a meeting and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will meet members of the action committee of the employee unions at the Sahyadri Guest House here at around 1 ..

Tandwa plant of NTPC to start power generation after 23-year wait

The National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC) North Karanpura power plant will start power generation after a long wait of 23 years

Ola Electric launches third software update for its e-scooter customers

Upgrade will give vehicles more than 50 features and improvements, says company

Madras High Court rejects plea against linking Aadhaar and electricity code

The first bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday rejected a plea from an advocate seeking to quash a Government Order (GO) passed in October this year, which mandated seeding of Aadhaar with the electricity consumer code. There is no merit in the petition, the bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy said. The bench was dismissing the petition from M L Ravi, also founder-president of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi who challenged the GO dated October 6 of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO).

Tata Power seeks regulator nod to raise tariffs and offset fuel cost surge

A spike in coal prices has increased cost of generation

Power deficit declines to 0.2% in November from 2% in April this yr

Power deficit, or the gap between electricity required and supplied, has fallen from 2 per cent in April this year to 0.2 per cent in November 2022, as per latest government data. However, the power deficit has increased sequentially from 0.1 per cent (124 million units) in October 2022. It stood at 0.2 per cent (233 million units) in November 2021. The data showed that the deficit was 2,752 million units (MU) in April this year, which came down to 199 MU in November 2022. The power deficit was 609 MU (0.4 per cent) in May, 796 MU (0.6 per cent) in June, 434 MU (0.3 per cent) in July, 465 MU (0.4 per cent) in August and 312 MU (0.2 per cent) in September. During the April-November period of this fiscal, power deficit rose to 0.6 per cent from 0.4 per cent in the same period in 2021. Power deficit in actual terms increased to 5,691 MU in April-November 2022 from 4,058 MU in the year-ago period. Power deficit in the entire fiscal 2021-22 was 5,787 MU (0.4 per cent). Union Power Mi

Denmark's price of electricity surges by 83% in 12 mths as gas prices rise

According to experts, the skyrocketing electricity prices over the past year are primarily fuelled by the rising gas prices

Net zero will radically change how we use and generate electricity

In BloombergNEF's baseline scenario, the Economic Transition Scenario, power consumption grows by about two-thirds between 2020 and 2050

IIT Madras generates power from sea waves, aims to go commercial by 2024

Innovation may help India achieve climate change-related goal of generating 500 Gw of renewable energy by 2030

ISTS charges waived on transmission of electricity from new hydro projects

The government has set an ambitious plan to have 500 GW of generation capacity from non-fossil energy-based sources by 2030

India's electricity consumption grows 14% to 112.81 billion units in Nov

India's power consumption logged a double-digit growth of 13.6 per cent to 112.81 billion units in November 2022 compared to the year-ago period, according to the government data. The robust growth of power consumption in the month mainly indicates an increase in economic activities as generally it remains subdued in November. Experts say power consumption and demand will further increase in the coming months due to use of heating appliances, especially in the northern part of the country, and further improvement in economic activities on account of the beginning of the new rabi crop season. Farmers use electricity to run tubewells for irrigation for new crops. In November last year, power consumption was 99.32 billion units (BU), higher than 96.88 BU in the same month of 2020, the data showed. The peak power demand met, which is the highest supply in a day, last month rose to 187.38 gigawatt (GW). The peak power supply stood at 166.10 GW in November 2021 and 160.77 GW in November