Indian Power Sector

1000 MWe would be added in the next quarter and another 1000 MWe in the last quarter of this year to the Koodunkulam Atomic Power Project.

This has been confirmed by Power Secretary P Uma Shankar. Meanwhile, the Vallur Power Project, which is the the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)’s joint venture with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, was well on target.

According to Arup Roy Choudhury, Chairman and Managing Director of NTPC, the first unit will be ready by the end of this year.

Saying that the financial health of the State Electricity Boards was a matter of concern to the Centre, he said in Delhi, the power tariffs had not been revised for five years. This situation was untenable,. He added.

“We had organised a meeting of State Power Ministers. All these issues have been discussed in detail. A set of resolutions were passed which broadly encompass the actions required to ensure that the tariffs reflect cost,” he further said.

A think tank based in Pune has released a report- “Thermal Power Plants on the anvil, implications and the need for rationalisation”- which called for an immediate moratorium on any further grant of environmental clearance for thermal power plants (TPPs).

The report by Prayas Energy Group (Initiatives in Health, Energy, Learning and Parenthood), says a massive expansion of the thermal generation capacity is on the anvil. The total installed electricity generation capacity in India as on April 30, 2011 was 1,74,361 MW. Of this, coal-based capacity was 94,653 MW and gas-based capacity, 17,706 MW. Information collated from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) shows it has accorded clearance for a large number of coal and gas-based plants, whose capacity totals 1,92,913 MW.

Environmental clearance is at various stages for another 5,08,907 MW units. The report notes that denial of environmental clearance for a thermal plant is extremely rare. This means coal and gas plants, envisaged to produce around 7,01,820 MW, are waiting to be built. Coal-based plants account for 84 per cent of the projects in the pipeline.

These additions are more than six times the existing installed thermal capacity of 1,13,559 MW. It is also three times the capacity addition that is required to meet the needs of the high-renewable, high-efficiency scenario of 2032 projected by the Planning Commission’s Integrated Energy Policy report.

The Prayas report points out that many of the projects in the pipeline will be concentrated in a few areas. Only 30 districts (or 4.7 per cent of the total 626 districts in India) will have more than half of the proposed plants with their capacity adding up to about 3,80,000 MW. Several of these districts are adjoining, and hence the real concentration of power plants is even higher than that revealed by the district-wise figures.

Considering the capacity that has already been granted environmental clearance and is under construction, a moratorium and review can easily be carried out without jeopardising power needs in the next decade, the report points out.

Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) has decided to invest Rs 40,200 crore to build power plants in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The State-owned firm has plans to install 7,500 Mw of power generation capacity, including a 4,000-Mw plant in Tamil Nadu and a 2000-Mw plant in Uttar Pradesh.

The coastal Sirkali Thermal Power Project in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu has already got in-principle approval from the Navratna company board. The project would be implemented in two phases of 2,000 Mw each, at an estimated cost of Rs 20,000 crore, using coal as the main fuel. NLC has approached the state government for administrative sanction to acquire lands. Preliminary project activities are in process.

In Uttar Pradesh, the company plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore to set up the 2,000-Mw coal-based thermal power plant in Ghatampur tehsil of Kanpur Nagar district.

The corporation plans to set up a thermal power project (2×500 Mw) at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu. The project will replace the corporation’s 600-Mw TPS-I. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 5,907 crore.

“The Government of India has sanctioned this project in June 2011. Tenders for major packages have been floated and the project is scheduled to be commissioned by December 2015,” said the company’s annual report.

Over 6.6 lakh additional manpower is needed for the Indian power sector during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), as ambitious capacity addition plans are in pipeline.

‘The proposed capacity addition during the 12th Plan is about 1,00,000 MW. This capacity addition and associated T&D network is likely to lead to the additional requirement of around 6.6 lakh manpower,’ according to a parliamentary panel.

In its recent report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy said operations and maintenance activities alone would require about 6.12 lakh people during the 2012-17 period.

The total projected requirement includes engineers, supervisors, skilled and semi-skilled workers, among others, for construction, as well as operation and maintenance activities.

During the same period, the manpower requirement on the construction side is estimated at around 49,000 people.

About 59,000 engineers would be needed for construction, as well as operation and maintenance activities, in the power sector.

As per the report, there would be a requirement of 93,000 skilled workers and 1,00,000 semi-skilled people during the 12th Five-Year Plan

About 4000 MW capacity is likely to be added in the 11th Plan through super-critical units and nearly 1980 MW has already been commissioned so far. In the 12th Plan, about 50% to 60% coal fired capacity addition is expected to be from super-critical units.

Minister of state for power Mr KC Venugopal, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, said that the super critical technology is more efficient than the conventional sub-critical technology and higher super-critical parameters of 565/593 deg. C can lead to about 5% savings in fuel consumption as compared to typical 500 MW sub critical units.

He also added that the super critical technology being a new technology may involve higher capital cost for initial units and a part of the higher capital cost may get offset by savings in fuel. Venugopal said that with new manufacturing entities being set up in the country, there may be reduction in capital cost in the long run.

He further said that generally, the super critical technology is being adopted for large size units to achieve benefit of economies of scale and faster capacity addition

The first phase of NTPC and BHEL Power Project Private Limited (NBPPL), a PSU for manufacturing equipment for power generation, coming up at Mannavaram near Tirupati, will be ready by December 2012.

Talking to reporters after inspecting the works under progress along with NBPPL managing director Varma, chairman and managing director Anup Roy Choudhury.admitted that there was some delay in the works.

He, however, added that the works would be expedited so as to complete the first phase by 2012 and the final phase by 2015 or 2016.

He said the company was also mulling shifting its head office now at Delhi to the project site soon for expediting the works.

Replying to a query, he said there was no dearth of funds for the project proposed with an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore as NTPC and BHEL, both are Navaratna companies.

BPPL managing director Varma and Tirupati MP Chinta Mohan were also present

Adra, National Thermal Power Corporation’s proposed project in West Bengal, has reportedly hit a roadblock over valuation of land on which it is to be built.

Following this, the power producer now plans to approach the Railway Ministry for a resolution. The memorandum of understanding for the plant had been signed in December.
The 1,3200-mw thermal power plant is to be executed as a 26:74 joint venture between the two state-run entities. Over 1,300 acres of land identified for the project belongs to the Railways. NTPC and the Railways need to agree on its pricing for the project to take off.

‘We feel the price being asked is on the higher side. The land is valued nearly at par with that in Kolkata, and NTPC executives are not too happy with the price being asked,’ an NTPC source was quoted as saying.

Jindal Power said its initial offer is unlikely to hit the market in the next four-five months. The company was planning to raise up to Rs 7,200 crore through the offer.

According to Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL) Deputy Managing Director Sushil Maroo, ‘We are yet to file the Draft Red Herring Prospects (DRHP). The IPO is not going to be launched in at least next four-five months from now.’

Initially, the company had planned to launch the issue by March this year. It was, however, postponed to end of April. After that there was no communication from JSPL on the probable date for the issue.

The Naveen Jindal-led company plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to part fund its Rs 24,290 crore ongoing expansion projects. It operates a 1,000 MW thermal power project at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh. In 2010-11, it had clocked Rs 3,338 crore net sales

The Power Ministry wrote a letter to the Coal Ministry seeking review of its decision to deallocate blocks awarded to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), which is a public sector firm which falls under the Power Ministry.

The Power Ministry recently wrote a letter to the Coal Ministry requesting it to review its decision of scrapping of two coal blocks allocated to DVC,” said a source in the Coal Ministry.

The Coal Ministry had in May cancelled the allotment of 14 coal blocks and one lignite block of six public sector firms, including DVC and three private firms for their failure to develop the mines.

Coal Ministry had cancelled DVC’s Saharpur Jamarpani coal block in Jharkhand and Gondulpara coal block in the state, jointly allocated to DVC and Tenughat Vidyut Nigam (TVNL).

In June, DVC and TVNL had also asked the Coal Ministry to reconsider its decision to deallocate the Gondulpara coal block, with the mine falling in the “no-go” zone

In a bid to ensure uninterrupted power supply across Greater Noida and Noida Extension, Noida Power Company Ltd (NPCL) is set to begin work on a 400 megawatt power plant. The 400 MW combined cycle power plant with advance class gas turbine technology will be ready by 2014.

The plant will come up in two phases. The first wing of the plant, having a capacity to generate 200 MW of power, will be completed by the end of 2013. In the next phase, another wing generating 200 MW of power will come up by 2014.

NPCL is also working on setting up two smaller electricity sub-stations with the capacity of 33 KV and 132 KV that are expected to be functional within four months and a year from now respectively.

The 33 KV sub-station will exclusively cater to the power needs of the Noida Extension-Greater Noida area. Once the 400 MW power plant is operational, authorities claim Greater Noida will get 24-hour power supply