"Power" News brought to you b y NPTI. Visit our website:

/

Govt to pick agency to plug power losses

-

SAWAY JOG M~umbai, 18 January

The power ministry wants to appoint an lnde pendent investigatot to identify the reasons for aggregate transmission and commercial losses (ATK).

The investigator, which the ministry hopes to appoint within two months, would lookinto theft, pilferage, transmission losses, n o n - b i i o f c o m e r s and t k e power sup ply by utilities. The ministry has received bids from several non-government agencies and they are being evaluated to select an investigator.

Power Mlnister Sushilkumar Shinde, on the sidelines of an exhibition here, said: "ATK losses have been brought down to 27 per cent from 39 per cent. But, the target is to bring it down to 15per cent. An independent investigator will keepa watch on factors such as power thefts, pilferage, transmission loss- es, non-billing of consumers and free power supply, which are key to the AT= losses." The mechanismis being proposed as the

Centre and states are focusins! on imoleme- nting revised accelbted pow& develdPment and reform rxomnlme to cut AT&C losses.

The reduction ~ A T & C losses, the minis- ter said, will be achieved by improving meter- ing emciency, proper energy accounting and auditing, and improved b i i and collec- tion mechanism. He noted that fixing accountability on personnel and feeder man- agers will help a lot in lowering AT&C loss.

Shinde's decision comes at a time when some states are battling high losses. In Manipur, the losses were 79.06 per cent. AT&C losses in Rajasthan were 29.52 per cent with subsidy and 58.41 per cent without sub- sidy. In the case of'lkdl Nadu, the losses for 2009-10 were 20.G ~)er cent. However, AT&C losses would inc@&e to 35.49 per cent con- sidering the notiq* shortfall of subsidy of MA64 crore. /

~ "Powef' in News brought to you 1 NPTI. Visit our website: www.n~ti.in

I 11

Pulok Chatterjee to head panelHadline set for specific tam I THE PLAN OF ACTION

and a m

amffl in 68 days. (ml mannte, npwl baclrtoPM Snpnbshla~mml

coll lndla Wch campanlea Xhufaaa q since M& 2009. Amund 18m- uw uplarv pmkrrr oDmm*slowdsitlcemen~ Ulplymw===JSF==nt drhdrcnpaeltyductohrd

tlld"Wlrhwt8nPSkpotaer p h w l l l n c c b e f e p r l b l c ' s&dervldLterluhLM&-

@mue pace of c a p a & y ~ I n m c n a o r had ehomu an improvement durlq Plan wiod 2OW-U m raflstsdlnmam-og of 53168 M a till November ZO1L --- mnsrralmd by dwxRle fwl ahormgeand prka hruaaim Imporred d, slld AF?

raI p 9 to fwl powu plmts whik Namnbo slid there - ~ ~ p o U c y * Lineatbrtbucra.

Siqlhmldthedek@ma 'pnalcal Prwwlf md rllble m1uUon' would be found to ~ I I proMema. He s a k i m e r r a n r a ~ t o ~

"Power" in News brought

'india Power Factor ~ u ~ d l b ~ w -*dh.- and would have long Urrn oontoauenoes. ThD Is an

Ne:!*.,. ?;lid pomr gwr*lon; i:& a W ~ J ~ W 8 h ma. w nib IdpirBOjKwii r c m BWXb*l:l.'dd IolW-WJKW m ! m W LtQand.k. 74srauealangr&M:' kt(lhlnd.mm*d

.3hn SurMkumer jldnde

imesllgmlof lo w. - lhnllly Gw nrm h ATM:

~ N S warn a n asumated M Y * ( w n ~ 1 ~ 0 0 0 ~ m,mo aon. t b kmr lddld h( AThC Imam have bmn mIpldhCm,36?4tomnd mndthe la rgmbmlurha bmgRdown!bIM(. In his conaludlng remarks. )rh. 8hlnd. s6'm~d h( the ~ b k e a n m - Power Minister assures Indian Power

Equipment industry adequate protection R R l u + . t . M r . R M . . h C ~ C P 4 . 1 a r r l E U I A ( o W h u m ~ h l r n * I h . u g g r t l o n and propyl.

Mumbat. 18 January, 201:: lnMa ussd b .dd 1Wa) hMl d mmpnd D the wmtm 4. me Mlnkllsr d Powe' p w r h s g h a n ~ p 4 m . a n d 738 POI olpla DPnurpllm h h% Sushhwnar 8i?kh &awK last)nerunaddad12QfAMWh. Indb b m KVdi m- 10 the lndlsn P w r Equlpmm~ v, ms 1s a h m & sWO - BOM) K v d h the Wal. lnhsDyd.depustopmLxlbn (orarutlon-b ~ h m I I m p d W ~ m ms tawg at ~ u , I- mm yay-. a w . M ~ . - of ELECw-2012 in mns *a ~nn m do man mi MI. ~hhd. ~ l d ~ m b M1:mb.l w s a n w by IEEMA m t t m l n - . p w o t m a d b n h m k l d l n (Indlin aw&ksh and O&bonb MuuhCww -IIM1. U I . ~ d d m s l h . l M l a n A ~ h d e a h I U u , p l . . o l

Mrs. lndrr Prem Menon,

=;.wyz. ELECRUMhr- r n r n r g l o b d ~ ~ d l r p * y l -cspblw..ndw ~ . ~ a u w o l l d b byno m mpe nag.m w2i- "h.--mi 'z

'Powef' in News brought to you by NPTI. Visit our website: www.n~ti.in

1 1 THE EC#MIC TIMES

Okay with Chinese Solar 4- Cells Imports if They Meet Stanwds: Govt

poor said. "We give the projects to devel-

Rejects domestic players' ' opers who in turn are bee to choose the i products. If the prices are low and quali-

demand to impose ty is good, then obviously, anyone would goforit." ' Low-priced Chinese solar cells and oth-

importdutyonfinished ersolarequipmentsarefloodingmarkets solar equipment glob all^, riling local players. China,

which exported solar panels worth $214 million last year, accounts for half the world market for solar cells.

SHREYA JAl OVIRAJ DESAl "Why should we as a NEW DELHl I nation help strengthen The ~overnmentsavs it hasnoobiectiods . ,a .., other international to imports of low-priced ~ h i n & e sol& manufacturers when cells as long as they meet prescribed' our owndomestic play- quality standards. ers are fledgling?" This comes as a setback to domesdc asked Vivek Chaturve-

manufacturers battling cheaper Chineie imports. Last week, the government re- jected a plea of domestic players seeking impositionof import duty onfinishedso- lar equipment. "The market will always bend tow-

the products which are low-priced. Bvt, yes the quality matters," said Tarun Q- poor, joint secretary ministry of new a@ ' renewable energy The Indian government's stand is Ih.1

contrast with the US policy, which has taken China to the World Trade Orga- nisation over dumping of solar cells and panels. Kapoor, however, said, "We support

I di, chief marketing of- Th- . i ficer, Moser Baer Solar stnd Is In Ltd, a leading manu- contrartwlththe facturer of solar W p a l k ~ ~ m l c h equipment. hfsakenalna At present, India's so- tothamover lar cell and module ca- d u ~ ~ o f ~ r pacity is around 700mw

prnds and 1,00Ornw, respective 1y Industry expects the demand to grow to 3 4 gigawatts annually in six years. Ministry officials though inform that

it's the thin-film technology in the solar cell market that is facing more threat, which often come with vendor-tied for- eign fiiancing.

what is legal, this is a case and we support "Given that -over 90 % of the installed WTO-accepted norms. It is not country global solar cell capacity is based on the specific, it's rule specific." more reliable crystalline silicon technol- India's National Solar Mission gives ogy, the government may well consider

preference to domestic manufacturer$. ' further extending the domestic content However, this is only at the central level' requirement to sustain the momentum and states are not obliged to follow this of solar manufacturing in the country,'' policy. "There's only one scheme that &- said Rupesh Agarwal, Advisory Lead - fers this ~rovision and it's not a law," I($- Cleantech at Ernst &Young. /

"Powef' in News brought to YOU N~TI . Visit our website: w-.npt,ti.in

THE ECOMOMIC TIMES

1 9 JAN 2012

I PM Promises Power B i ~ ~ i e s Measures to SOL I. CM t CI isis

OUR BUREAU NEW DELHl

P rime Minister Manmohan Singh cheered an anxious bunch of toy industrialists, hom Anil Amba-

ni to Ratan Tata, with a promise to take immediate, decisive action to solve the power sector's problems in a time-bound manner and convert the loomingcrisis into an opportunity. He has asked his principal seaem

WokChatterji, toset up a committee of secretaries that shouldmeet every week and apprise the PM about the progress onceamonth, saidamember of thebusi- nessdelegation.Hehasalsodirectedhis cabinet oollmgues to give top priorityto resolve the issues that plague the sector The high-proflle delegation included

Ashok Hinduja, Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal, Prashant Ruia of the Es- sar group, GMR's GM Rao, Gautam Ada- ni, w a n and Naveen Jindal as well as Lanco b t e c h chairman Madhusu- dan ReLo and GVK Group's Way Red& "We are going back happx and we will have a nice sleep," an industriaht said. "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

today assured the private players in

Power idear CoalMinister Sriprakash Jaiswal,Dep uty Chairman of Planning Commis- sion Montek Singh Ahluwalia and En- vironment Minister Jayanti Natrajan were present at the meeting. The indwtriabts also visited these

PM pmmlm to take immccha,. decisive atm to A v t the power sector's proMems In a time-bound manner

Acommittee of secretaries to be set up that w ~ l l meet every week and apprise the PM about the nrogress once a month - I ministers as well as F'jnance Minister

Prabab Mukherjee and OilMinister Jai- pal Reddy The 'mdustrialists are seek- ing higher supply of coal and natural gas, faster environmental cl-, distribution reforms, greater access to funds, andsupportfor ultramegapower projects that are in trouble because im- ported coal prices have risen sharply

the power sector that a 'pra&, making their operations unviable. pragmatic and viable s 0 1 u t i o n ' ~ b ''After giving a patient hearing to found to the plethora of ~roble c- their demands, the prime minister as- ingthepowe~generatio&inddi&&u- sured the delegation that action will tion sector," a statement fro& h e start immediately and his principal prime minister's ofilce (PMO) s&! secretary will meet the representa- "He assured the delegation df his tives after one month to apprise them

government's commitment in taking all possible steps to mitigate th9mb- lems being faced by the power -or. He also directed his leaguespresentat themeetingt all-out efforts to resolve

of the progress made," t h e P ~ o said. After the meeting, where Ratan Tata

kicked off the power sector's agenda and Anil Ambani summed up the core issues, the prime minister told them that the committee of secretaries would prepare a 90-day revival plan which will have monthly milestones, a

member of the business delegation said. The group of CEOs will meet the PM again after 90 days to review pro- gress, while empowered groups of ministers on gas, coal and ultra mega power projects will meet shortly to clear pending issues, he added. Industry officials said the prime min-

ister's assurance was a shot in the arm for the industry "We are very sure that the necessary solutions will be found. Some h u e s are complicated but with such an assurance from the highest lev- el, we are very reassured," Ashok Khu- rana, director general of the Associ- ation of Power Producers said. Industrialists heaved a sigh of relief

as theirproblemsare monumental. At risk is investment of T2 lakh crore in power plants already built by their companies anddouble that number on the drawing board for construction in the next five years. Many power plants are idling or underutilised because of fuel shortages and several under con- struction will struggle to find afYorda- ble coal or natural gas. One member of the business delegation said that the PM was keen to ensure that CoalIndia meets its supply obligations.

"Power" in News brought to you by NPTl. Visit our website: www.n~ti.in

[ h e r I cos raise clearance issue ': I= 7 , . I ! TIMES NEWS NETWORK husudan Rao and Andrew the coaatry's total electricity . , Bran& They complained generation capacity, rolled out ! ,New Delhi: Principal m t a - that projects were becoming alistaf litaniestheysaidcould i xy to PM Pulok Chatterjeewill umriable with coal from Inde pull tEe plug on their projects i . ~ 0 0 W t e the governmenfs nesia and Australia becoming and Mtk the nation power- j i efforts as the Centre is keen to costlier, Coal India not in a w less, i i . m u r e power generation does sition to cater to demand &I Power sector bosses also i i not suffer, while it considers banks leaning on companies raisecEkues regarding green : I options to help the industry who were fmding it hard to c l m a e s for their projects

withqfln&cialcrunch in meet contractua~obligations. with environment h r : ,Ace of hieh cost of immrted And. the cascadheffect ofad- J a e Nataraian amone; ! .coal and Gmestic prod&ion v& conditions k being felt thi mbisters p&nt at th;t i &ot keeping pace by thetheseindustriabsk meeting\ with the PM. Anil : ' "Your problems are a na- The PM assured that their Ambahi, suggested that in- : .(tional problem, they will be problems in medium md long smd C @waiting coal linkag- i' l given priority" the PM is un- term will be addressed,re&ct- es, gowmment should give a j: derstood to have told the 17- inr! the governmenrs keen- clmauce even resuming ?. member delegation that called n<sstoen&reapower squeeze poor @tali@ of coaisupplies. - i lon him and included RatanTa- does not add to the strains be Nataraian is understood to 1 and Cyrus Mistg Anil ingfelt on a slowing economy. havepoinkout that clearanc- $ &and, Anil Ambani, Gau- TheindWrhMs, whoare es ha&* given and noted 5 fam A M , Rashant Ruia, keen on a higher selling price that WIndia was producing :- w a n Jidal, Navin Jidal, for the power they generate at half\ the production ca j & . h o k ~ i n d ~ a , ~ ~ ~ a o , ~ a d - and account for o-th of ty cleared by her+/ 6.

M seeks 30 to tackle

power crisis TIMES NEWS NETWORK

i New Delhi: Assuring i er sector honchos tha j hurdles they were fa i are a "national proble i PrimeMinister Manmo i Singh on Wednesday to

delegationaf businessle i ers-including Ratan Ta i Anil Ambani and N i Jindal - that the P

would act on a priority ba- sis to defuse the crisis.

The PM agreed that short-term problems like coal sumlies should be tack-

led immediately and the

1)lace in three months.

"Power" in News brought to you b i NPTl. Visit our website: www.n~ti.in I ' f

1 !!I JAN 2012

/ @anel set up to address power sector concerns I Special correspondent ! - NEW DELHI: A Committee of Secretaries (CoS) has been constituted by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to address the concerns of the power sector. This follows a meeting that he had today with promoters and chiefs of power companies. The CoS, to be headed by the Prime Minister's Principal Secreta- ry, Pulok Chatterji, will look into issues such as shortage of coal and gas, price of import- ed coal, hike in power tariff and second-generation re-

, forms of the sector. The power sector corpo-

rate honchos pointed out that the meetings of the Empo- wered Group of Ministers (EGoM) for taking decisions on addressing the concerns of the power sector have not taken place for a long time. The continued shortage of coal and gas, coupled with ris- ing cost of imported coal had made power projects unvia- ble. In such a scenario, de- layed decisions were only hurting the investor senti- ment and leading to uncer- tainty for those who had

i already pumped huge amount of funds in massive projects

Union Minister of Coal Sriparakash Jaiswal meeting corporates of power sector in New Delhi on Wednesday. - PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

totalling around 90,000 MW. The meeting with the Prime 'Minister was very positive and he appreciated the grav- ity of the situation. He as- sured that all the problems would be resolved soon and asked his officials and Cabi- net colleagues to draw up an action plan for time bound addressing of issues," Associ- ation of Power Producers Di- rector General, Ashok Khurana said after the meeting.

Dr. Singh assured the group that the Government was committed to giving a push to power reforms. He

said the CoS would work out 2

30-day, 60-day and 90-daj action plan to address the short and long term concern: of this sector and specially ad. dress the issues raised during Wednesday's meetings.

The Prime Minister saic that he would ask the con. cerned Ministries to get thc EGoMs convened at the earli- est so that decisions are no1 delayed and policy is not pul on hold. At the same time, ht appreciated the initiative tak. en by the industry leaders tc convene this meeting and work out a solution to problems.

"Powef' in News brought to you by NPTI. Visit our website: www.n~ti.in

18 JAN 2012

Resolve power crisis, biz leaders urge govt New Delhk Some of lndla's biggest tycoons pushed the government to resolve the cwntly's worsening elecbkl- ty crunch by freeing access to fuel for power plants, adding pressure on Prime 'ulinkter Manmohan Singh, blamed for ailing to push bold r e f m

Tata group chairman Ratan Tata Reli- dnce Power chalrman Anll Ambani, and Adani Power chairman Gautarn Adani met Singh on a long day of meetings in the Capital between top power industry executives and senior government om- cials. "We pushed for all issues, mainly augmenting domestic coal production,"

. -

Ashok Khurana, director general of the Assodation of Power Producers, said after the group met B.K Chaturvedi, the

responsible for energy.

"Powef' in News brought to you NPTI. Visit our website: www.n~ti.in

PM forms secvs~ ~anel to resolve power sector woes

THE FINANCIAL EXPRE:

18 JAN 2012

fe Bureau - market has risen alarm- New Delhi, Jan 18 I ingly in recent months

with massive capacity ad-

P RIME MinisterMan- dition plans afoot in the mohan Singh has power sector and produc- tasked a committee OF FINANCE, tion stagnation at Coal In-

of secretaries(C0S)headed PETROLEUM, dia. Policymakers have by principal secretary Pu- ~ A L AND turned jittery as delays in lok Chatte rjee with quick EN\IIRQNM the commissioning of resolution of the issues con- these power generation h n t i n g the power sector =IDES Pw* units, including two ultra like a worseningfuel short- PANEL MEM~EK t mega power projects that age and the dichotomy be- BK CHATU~~VEDI , will run on Indonesian tween the rising cost of im- .,' coal, could @*anger eco- ported coal and the power - & .; ~ , ~ ~ , ~ a u f ~ . . - purchase pacts. rn Tariff revision for W&a, The day-18ng marathon

The move underlines I(rkhnapatnamUMPPs? P5 meetings saw corporate the PM's intervention in honchos moving from min- key ministries that have CoS to try and ensure that istrytoministry,askingfor been struggling to sort out all relevant issues are re- afavourablepolicy climate these issues. solved within three mon- for the power sector where

Singh, who met the ths, failing which there investmentsworthlakhsof ieadsof majorprivatepow- would be another round- crores of rupees are stuck ?r companies including table with the industry due to various regulatory iatan Tata, Anil Ambani The demand-supply gap and global issues. ~ndAnilAgarwalaskedtl-- for ---' '-- "- - ' mestic rContinwdonPage2

the corporate leaders also met mce minister Pranab Mukherjee, petrolem minis- ter Jaipal Reddy, coal d n k t e r sriprakash Jaiswal, environ-

"The PM has provided as- uranceof an early resolution o power developers' issues. le has asked his senior minis- erial colleagues to draw a -oad map in a time-bound nanner so that investment in he sector picks up," Ashok Ulurana, director general of. he association of power pro- lucers, told FE.

To augment domestic coal ,upply the delegation sought iingh's internention to ensure mplementation of key policy hanges that would pave the vay for reserving the entire mduction of thermal coal for he regulated sectors along the ines of the government's gas itilkation polic)! allow diver- ,ion of eauctioncoalat CIL no- ified prices and ensure equal listribution of available coal

drnong all power plants. The private power develop

ers also asked for policy changes to reserve new coal blocks for regulated sectors like power and to ensure expe- ditious action on auctioning blocks as per the new policy and issuance of environmen- tal clearance. The delegation

higher blending of imported coal necessitated by the short supply of coal from CIL.

For Wects using domestic coal, it suggested providing compensation by way of pass- through for incremental costs spent on acquiring coal through eauction or by way of imports, for quantitiesnot p m vided against linkages accord- ed by Coal India. For projects based on imported coal, it sug- gested that recognising the aberration caused due to un- precedented rise in Coal prices andchangeof lawdrhnbyfor- eign government regulations and consider allowing the in- crements to be treated as the

I pass-through in tariffs.

Power producers also sought diversion of noncore sector gas supply topowerpre jects being developed under the 11th Plan programme.

The delegation also sug- gested key policy changes to persuade states to expedite power reforms, including linking disbursement of cen- tral fbnd to state utilities to their performance. It also sug- ' gested encouraging states to -

I meit minister Jayanthi soughtpolicychangestoallow adoptnewoperatio&lmodels 1 Nataraian and Plannina Com- sale of s m l u s coal from c a ~ like mivatisation. oublic-~ri- . - mission member BK Chaturvedi. Separetely, N a W a n said the govern- ment was planning to b e broader guidelines and pre scribe timelines for issuingen- vironment clearances to pow- ersectorprojects. Soumessaid the industry leadersdiscussetl financingissues relatingtothe power sector with Mukherjee. They pressed for relaxation of RBl's bankexposurenormsfor lendmg tothe power sector

tive mines, Further, the deie- gation also underlined the ur- gency to appoint an agency to import coalformeeting thedo- mestic fueldeficit.

The delegation also asked thePMtosetupanexpertgroup to suggest a suitable mecha- nism to allow tariff revision those projects where develop em' calculations on fuel costs have gone haywire either due to change in law in coal export- ing countries or because of

vate-partnerships-and fkn- . chiseesystems.

The delegation indud- edCyrusm,deputychair- man, Tata Group, Gautarn +

Adani, head of Adani Group, GMRao,chairman, GMR, Saj- jan Jindal, chief of JSW Ener- gy. Prashant Ruia, Group CEO, Essar Power, Sudhir Mehta, chairman, Torrent Power and L Madhusudan I Rao, chairman, Lancohfkte- ch.