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NEW DELHI, MARCH 10 :
THE Ministry of Power and THDC India have enetered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) defining the performance guarantee parameters for the financial year 2010-11.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard has been signed between the Ministry of Power (MOP) and THDC INDIA here on Tuesday by Mr Harisankar Brahma, Secretary(Power), Govt of India and Mr R.S.T. Sai, CMD, THDC India.

Apart from the Senior officials of Ministry of Power, Mr. A.S. Bisht, Director (Personnel), Mr C.P. Singh, Director(Finance) and Mr Deepak Sarwal, General Manager, from THDC India . were also present at the signing of the MoU.(editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI, FEB 25 :
RAGA Integrated Technology Management Services is hosting the "The World Renewable Energy Technology Congress and Exhibition-2010 from March 18-20, 2010 at Hotel LeMeridien here in India.

The objective of the Congress is to promote and accelerate the contribution of the renewable energy to the energy basket of the country. With this aim, the theme of the Congress has been aptly chosen as "Global Technology Cooperation for Renewable Energy".

The Congress will further bring into focus the preparedness of Government of India and industry in accelerating the recently launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and in managing climate change. It will also highlight the opportunities available for Public-Private participation for financing renewable energy projects.

Speakers from across the globe are participating in this Congress and some of the main keynote speakers include Mr. BK Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission, Government of India, HE Ms Danjele Smadja, Ambassador Head of the Delegation of the European Union, Mr. Mark Ginsberg, Sr. Executive Board Member, US Department of Energy, Dr. Pramod Deo, Chairman, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, Government of India and Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India. The congress is being organized under the leadership of Mr. SK Manglik, former CMD, ONGC and Chairman, Steering Committee of the Congress.

The event Re-EnergyTech-2010 is being supported by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, IREDA, ONGC, Suzlon, Webel, IOC, GTZ, Schlumberger, US Department of Energy-Washington, European Union, World Bank, World Energy Council, Wind Energy Association, German Technical Cooperation, Japan International Cooperation Agency, United Nations, Coal India Ltd., Google, many other associations and eminent organizations Worldwide.

The exhibition segment will provide a window for the exposition of the latest developments in products, technologies and services in the industry.

The speakers, delegates and exhibitors from Romania, Russia Greece, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Libya, China, USA, UK, Israel, Germany, Norway, Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Singapore and European Union and many other countries are expected to participate in the Congress. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI, FEB 23 :
AN Indian delegation led by Mr H. S. Brahma, Secretary (Power), Govt. of India visited Bangladesh from 18th to 20th February 18 to 20 , 2010 to participate in the 2nd Joint Steering Committee Meetings in Dhaka and also to discuss various issues regarding interconnection of electrical grids between the India and Bangladesh.

The delegation also included Mr S. K. Chaturvedi, CMD, PowerGrid and senior officials of Ministry of Power, Central Electricity Authority and other constituents.

During the visit it was agreed that PowerGrid , India shall provide consultancy to Power Grid Company of Bangladesh for construction of Bangladesh portion of the interconnection as well as capacity building of PGCB's manpower. Terms and conditions for providing the services were initialed by PowerGrid, India and PGCB.

The bulk power transmission agreement for payment of transmission charges for Indian portion of the interconnection was also initialed by PowerGrid, India and Bangladesh Power Development Board . (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI, FEB 23 :
STANDING Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) organized a lecture programme on “Challenges & Vision for Power Sector in India” by Mr R.V. Shahi, former Secretary, Power who also released the Special Issue of Kaleodoscope on “Phenomenal Growth of Public Sector Power Enterprises”. Mr. Arup Roy Choudhury, Chairman SCOPE and Mr. S.K. Chaturvedi, CMD, Power Grid Corpn and Dr U.D. Choubey, Director General, SCOPE also spoke on the occasion.

In his address Dr U.D. Choubey, DG, SCOPE emphasized the need for reforming the pricing policy of power for growth of the industry. “Continuous supply of requisite power is essential to meet the needs of industrial and economic activities. Today, consumers are ready to pay better price provided the power supply is uninterrupted and of good quality”, said Dr Choubey.

Mr. Arup Roy Choudhury, Chairman, SCOPE said power should be available to people who can pay for it and there is urgent need to address the various issues impacting the growth of power sector. He also appreciated the various reforms taken by the government to meet the growing demand of power.

Mr. R.V. Shahi, former Secretary, Power while delivering the lecture said the country would be able to achieve about 62,000 mw out of 78,000 mw set for the 11th Five Year Plan and stressed upon the need to encourage competition in the larger interest of consumers. He said electricity is crucial not only for the growth of GDP, but also important for achieving the agenda of inclusive growth of the country. Growth of all the sectors including health, education depends upon electricity. It is mainly responsible for the urban rural divide as the infrastructure which is available in the city is not available in the rural areas.

In his address, Mr. S.K. Chaturvedi, CMD, POWERGRID said despite the phenomenal growth, power availability in the country has not been able to keep pace with the load demand and presently we have peak power shortage of 13 percent and energy shortage of 8-10 percent. He emphasized the need for strong power transmission and distribution network to achieve the target of power for all by 2012.

During the programme, it emerged that issues like acquisition of land, environment, forest and other clearances, skilled manpower, less capacity of manufacturing of power project equipments, large financial gaps etc. were among the major areas of concerns which needed urgent attention of the government as well as of the public and private corporates. The lecture programme was attended by about 70 senior executives from various PSEs. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI, FEB 16 :
REITERATING its commitment to the success of the Commonwealth Games to be held in October, 2010 in New Delhi, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has synchcronised the first 490 mw unit at the National Capital Thermal Power Project (NCTPP) Stage-II, at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.

This is the first indigenous unit equipped with a high temperature reheat steam turbine which has been designed for operating at a higher reheat steam temperature of 565 degree Celsius aimed at reducing the consumption of coal. The unit also comprises an advanced control, instrumentation and monitoring system.

The order for setting up 2 sets of 490 mw each at NCTPP was placed on BHEL by NTPC. BHEL's scope of work in the contract envisaged manufacture, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of the main plant package for two units of 490 mw each.

NTPC has declared commercial operation of the unit. The 2nd unit is also in an advance stage of erection and is expected to go on stream in time.
Notably, the company has also recently achieved drum lifting milestone of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) at the 1,500 MW Pragati-III Combined Cycle Power Plant, coming up at Bawana in New Delhi, thereby achieving a major milestone towards supplying power to the Commonwealth Games.

For the Commonwealth Games, BHEL is also executing contracts for several other power projects including Koderma STPS (2x500 MW), Mejia STPS (2x500 MW) and Durgapur Steel STPS (2x500 MW) of DVC and Jhajjar STPS (3x500 MW) of APCPL, in addition to Dadri STPS (2x490 MW) of NTPC and Pragati-III CCPP (1,500 MW) of PPCL.

India is facing a shortage of 24 million housing units with majority of demand coming from low and mid income housing. The private sector can play a major role in giving a boost to such housing if the tax holiday in respect of the profit derived from housing projects built u/s 80 IB (10) to the "projects approved between 1st April 2007 to 31st March 2008 if such projects are completed before 31st March 2012", is extended for the next three years. The government should also consider amending the definition of 'infrastructure facility' u/s 80- IA to include an integrated township and group housing development on areas of more than 10 acres. This will meet the long outstanding demand of housing to be treated as infrastructure.

Further revival in the Indian real estate sector will be steered by the affordable housing segment. Increasing the deduction currently available with regard to interest and principal repayment on housing loans will give much required impetus to the housing segment. Moreover, the limit of Rs.2.5 lacs should be increased as the present limit of Rs.1 lakh is already overcrowded. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI, FEB 16 :
THE Tata Power Company , an integrated private power utility, and Korea East West Power Company , a generation utilities of Korea, signed a memorandum of uynderstanding (MoU) to identify and execute O&M opportunities relating to third party Generation assets in Asia, Middle East and Africa .

Under this MoU, Tata Power and EWP have initiated a technical cooperation in the field of Operation and Maintenance of the Generation Assets. The technical Cooperation shall cover exchange of information, best practices and exchange of personnel relating to the O&M of Generation Assets.

Tata Power's brand image and reach in the Indian and International markets and EWP's rich experience in Operations of Ultra Super-critical and CFBC Units, development and implementation of Plant Operation and Maintenance Management System (POMMS) and benchmarking of best practices, put together will enable both the entities to expand their businesses in the Indian, Korean and other targeted markets.

Mr. Prasad Menon, Managing Director, Tata Power said, "The MoU will enable exchange of technical cooperation with Korea East West Power Company Ltd. Apart from the domestic market, we aim to explore and extend our partnership in widening our Operation and Maintenance portfolio in the Asian market and look forward to the association."

Tata Power Services Group is a new business initiative wherein the company is currently offering O&M, project management and other related services to domestic clients and aims to further expand this business in the domestic and as well as overseas markets. Under this business initiative, the first contract in ked is with OPG Power Generation Pvt. Ltd. (OPG). Tata Power will provide Operations and Ma in tenance Services for its 1x80 MW of Coal based thermal power plant situated at Gummidipoondi, Chennai city which is scheduled to be commissioned shortly. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

DHAKA, FEB 15 :
THE 120 MW Gas Turbine Generating Unit at Siddhirganj Power Plant in Bangladesh, set up by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), was inaugurated today by Ms. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

This is the first unit of the 240 mw Siddhirganj Peaking Power Plant Project (2x120 MW) being set up by BHEL on turnkey basis. The second unit is also in an advanced stage of completion at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded project of the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB).

BHEL has earlier set up the 100 mw Baghabari Power Plant in Bangladesh, which has been operating successfully for almost a decade. The commissioning of this 120 MW unit at Siddhirganj Power Plant marks another milestone in further strengthening India-Bangladesh trade and economic relations.

Electricity generated by the Siddhirganj power plant will provide the much needed addition to the installed power generating capacity of Bangladesh.

For the project, the scope of work awarded to BHEL by EGCB, Bangladesh includes complete design, manufacture, testing, supply, installation and commissioning of 2 numbers 126 mw ISO rated Gas Turbines and Generators along with auxiliaries and Gas Booster Compressors, besides other major equipment and civil works.

Major equipment like Gas Turbines, Generators, Gas Booster Compressors, Generator Transformers as well as state-of-the-art Control Systems were manufactured by BHEL at their various plants in India. For the civil as well as erection commissioning and other local works, local companies in Bangladesh were associated.

Bangladesh has been a key export territory of BHEL, where in the past, it has executed several contracts including the 100 MW Baghabari Gas Turbine Power Plant; 230 kV Baghabari Substation and extension of the existing 230 kV Ishurdi Substation, besides supply of Power Transformers, HT Motors and Oilfield equipment to various industries in Bangladesh. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI, FEB 08 :
BHARAT Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has secured a major contract for the electro-mechanical equipment package for a 1,200MW (6x200 MW) Hydroelectric project in Bhutan.

Valued at Rs1,016 crore, the order envisages manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of the electro-mechanical equipment for the 1,200 mw Punatsangchhu-I Hydroelectric project.

The order has been placed on BHEL by Punatsangchhu Hydroelectric Project Authority (PHPA), Bhutan. Significantly, this is the single largest contract for BHEL in the hydro electric power generation business segment.

The project is being set-up under a bilateral agreement between the Govt. of India, and the Royal Govt. of Bhutan. Located around 80 km from Thimphu on the left bank of the Punathsangchu River in Western Bhutan, the project is an environment friendly run-of-the-river scheme.

Bhutan is one of the key export territories of BHEL, where it has a predominant presence since the last 25 years in the power generation segment. The company has successfully executed three Hydro Projects, viz., 336 MW Chukha, 60 MW Kurichu and 1,020 MW Tala in Bhutan. These projects today account for nearly 95 percent of the total power generating capacity in Bhutan which is a testimony of BHEL's strong presence and acceptability. As a result of the installation of these power projects, hydro power is today the single biggest revenue earner of Bhutan.

For this contract, the six Francis Turbines and Generators of 200 MW each and associated equipment will be manufactured and supplied by BHEL's Bhopal facility while the Control system will be manufactured and supplied by BHEL's Electronic Division at Bangalore. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

Mr. Ashok Sethi, VP, Distribution, Mr. Vijay Chourey, GM, License Area, Mr. M Shenbagam, GM Customer Management, License Area of Tata Power receiving the Gold Shield and the Silver Shield for the Trombay generation facility was received by Mr. K. S. Thimmiah, General Manager, Project in Charge, Trombay Unit 8 and Mr Ashok Wankhede GM, Trombay Plant, Tata Power Company from the Minister of Power, Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde in New Delhi.

MUMBAI, FEB 02 :
RECOGNISING Tata Power's performance in the generation of quality power and reliable supply to its consumers in the Mumbai License Area; the Ministry of Power, GoI conferred the Gold Shield for distribution business and rated the Trombay Thermal 250 mw Unit 8 generation facility as the second best performing station in India for 2008-09 with the Silver Shield award at a function in New Delhi.

While the Gold Shield was awarded for the meritorious performance in the operations and maintenance (O&M) excellence leading to steady reduction in distribution loss, reliability of power supply, metering, billing and collection efficiency, in Mumbai retail business; the Silver Shield was conferred for the speedy completion and commissioning of the 250 Unit 8 at Trombay Thermal Generation Station in Mumbai.

Mr. Ashok Sethi, Vice President, Distribution, Mr. Vijay Chourey, General Manager, License Area, Mr. M Shenbagam, General Manager, Customer Management, License Area received the Gold Shield and the Silver Shield for the Trombay generation facility was received by Mr. K. S. Thimmiah, General Manager, Project in Charge, Trombay Unit 8 and Mr. Ashok Wankhede General Manager, Trombay Plant, Tata Power Company from the from the Minister of Power, Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Apart from these awards, Tata Power's joint venture company in New Delhi i.e. New Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) won the Silver Shield for the distribution business at the ceremony.

The Ministry introduced Comprehensive Award Scheme in 2004-05 for acknowledging and awarding meritorious performance, thereby creating competitiveness among various power stations/projects in thermal, hydro and nuclear generation, transmission project and distribution companies.

Mr. Prasad Menon, Managing Director, The Tata Power Company , said, "The awards' reiterate Tata Power's experience and execution skills in both the generation and distribution business, and is a recognition for the commendable efforts of the teams, who have strived hard to achieve excellence in performance in last few years. This award will further motivate us, in our endeavor to optimize performance and ensure excellent delivery from our end."

Tata Power's excellence has been recognized by various governing bodies across the country. Some of the recent awards won include - the Silver Shield from Ministry of Power and Central Electricity Authority for 2007-2008 for the Bhira plant, the Quality Circles Award 2007 at the "National Convention on Quality Circles" under the aegis of Quality Circle Forum of India.

Tata Power's Jojobera Division was awarded the "Suraksha Puraskar" by the National Safety Council of India in recognition of the developing and implementing very effective Safety Management Systems and Procedures and achieving very good performance in safety during the assessment period of three years - 2003-05.
About Trombay Unit 8:

The Thermal Unit 8 of 250 MW was synchronized and commissioned in March 2009 and operates on imported Indonesian coal. This unit enhanced the generation capacity of the Trombay plant to 1,600 MW from the earlier capacity of 1,350 MW.

The first synchronization with the grid was achieved on January 14, 2009, coal firing was commenced on March 7, 2009 and attained full load in March 2009. The civil works for the project has been executed by Larsen & Tubro, whereas the main plant and balance of equipment was executed by BHEL for supply, erection and commissioning under EPC contract. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI, FEB 02 :
REACHING out to the distressed victims in the flood-ravaged areas of Andhra Pradesh, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has made a humble contribution to help alleviate their suffering.

To this effect, on behalf of BHEL, a cheque amounting to Rs.2.5 crore was presented by Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India to Mr K. Rosaiah, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Mr. B.P. Rao, CMD, BHEL, Directors on the board of BHEL and other senior officials of BHEL were also present on the occasion.

In addition to lighting the homes of people, the power equipment major is also helping in lighting the lives of people in distress. The company and its employees have always risen to the occasion and contributed towards rendering relief to victims of natural calamities like the tsunami-affected states, floods in Assam and Bihar, earthquake in Gujarat, the super cyclone in Orissa and the drought in Gujarat and Rajashtan, in addition to the Kargil war.

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and as an attempt to share its profits with one of its key stakeholders - society, the company has adopted 56 villages around the country for welfare activities. Primarily located in the vicinity of its major manufacturing plants, around the country, these villages and their 80,000 inhabitants are benefiting from BHEL's initiative aimed at all-round grass-root rural development.

The company's approach to rural development is based on an in-depth study of various socio-economic factors in areas in the periphery of its unit/divisions. The company's rural development programme is based on four main objectives viz. rural development, rural education, rural health & environment and rural employment generation. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI, JAN 28 :
POWER Grid Corporation ( PowerGrid) organised a two-day international workshop from January 28 - 29 ,2010 on Smart Grid for all the power utilities of the country at its Gurgaon office.

The workshop was inaugurated by Minister of power Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde , Additional Secretary, MoP, Mr GB Pradhan and Member(PS), CEA Mri V Ramakrishnan alongwith other senior officers of Ministry and Central electricity authority also participated in the workshop.

The workshop has been conducted by Prof. Phadke and Mr. KE Martin from the USA and other Industry expert from India. During the inaugural function Minister of Power praised the all around performance of PowerGrid and said that the company as always been in lead road for implementation of new technologies in power sector.

The Minister asked PowreGrid to take leadership position for implementation of smart grid technology also. He further mentioned that Ministry will provide all support for implementation of Smart Grid Technology in country for Transmission & Distribution of power.

The intent of the workshop was to discuss the technological and strategical issues involved in implementation of the smart grid.

The power major has already taken up two pilot projects for transmission system of Northern and Western Region Power System which would involve deployment of Synchro phasor based WAMS (Wide Area Measurement Area) Technology.

Prof. Phadke his involved in development of WAMS Technology since its birth. POWERGRID’s initiative would prompt other utilities for similar action. PowerGrid would provide all steps to help to all these organizations.

Smart Grid envisages providing choices to each and every customer for deciding the timing and amount of power consumption based upon the price of the power at a particular moment of time.

The depleting traditional resources of energy, increasing cost and global warming have created the situations where it is imperative to develop new sources of energy. The development of viable electric vehicle, increase in power generation based upon solar, wind and other new resources are the possible alternatives.

For some of these resources of power generation it may not be possible to forecast the schedule of generation which is one of the prime requirements for smooth grid operation.

Other concern of the power utilities is low level of asset utilization primarily due to wide gap in peak and non peak demand. These new challenges would call for extensive use of automation technologies in the power sector. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI , India , JAN 25 :
POWER Grid Corporation of India (PowerGrid), India's Central Transmission Utility and a Navratna PSU, has declared an interim dividend for Rs.176.68 crore for the fiscal 2009-10.

Mr S.K. Chaturvedi, CMD, PowerGrid handed over electronic payment remittance advice of Rs.176.68 crore towards share of Ministry of Power, Government of India as interim dividend for FY 2009-10 to the Union Minister of Power, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday in the presence of Minister of State for Power and Secretary (Power).

The total interim dividend being disbursed is to the tune of Rs.210.45 crore to about 8.75 lakh shareholders.

PowerGrid is operating about 74,000 ckt. kms. of transmission lines along with 124 Sub-stations with transformation capacity of more than 82,100 MVA.

With the use of state-of-the-art preventive maintenance techniques, average availability of transmission systems during the year 2008-09 was maintained at 99.55 percent. The company continues to wheel about 45 percent of total power generated in the country through its transmission network. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

NEW DELHI, JAN 21 :
CENTRAL Transmission Utility Power Grid Corporation of India . (PowerGrid ) organized the second stakeholders meeting on the Indo-Nepal Cross Border Transmission Project in New Delhi recently.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from Government of Nepal, Nepal Electricity Authority, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. (SJVNL), Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS) and IPPs putting up hydro power projects in Nepal.

The project consists of putting up an extra high voltage transmission corridor between Muzaffarpur in India and Dhalkeabar in Nepal and is the first high capacity cross border transmission corridor for bulk transfer of power between India and Nepal.

The Indo-Nepal Transmission Line project is being implemented by two separate Joint Venture companies (Indian portion and Nepal portion) wherein PowerGrid , SJVNL, Nepal Electricity Authority and IL&FS are the stakeholders and the project is expected to be completed by 2012 at an estimated cost of Rs.205 crore.

Despite huge hydro potential, Nepal is currently reeling under acute power shortage which is going to increase to 150 - 250 MW in next 3-5 years. There are some small low voltage and medium voltage interconnections where limited exchange of power on radial mode is currently happening to the extent of 50-70mw.

Large numbers of small and medium size hydro power plants aggregating to 2,000 MW are under development and in 5 to 7 years time, Nepal would be able to export substantial power to India. In addition, the development of large sized export oriented projects is also under way. This high capacity cross border transmission line will initially help Nepal in meeting part of its deficit by importing power from India and subsequently for export to India. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

CHENNAI, DEC 23 :
OMNE Agate Systems, a Chennai-headquartered technology solution provider focusing on online energy management solutions, has won an order from Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) to implement GPRS-based metering system. Omne Agate has been chosen by UHBVN to conduct online energy audits for 19000 distribution transformers for the next 3 years.

This contract is in compliance with the restructured accelerated power development and reforms programme (R-APDRP) of the Ministry of Power. With a budget of about Rs. 55,000 crore, R-APDRP is a Government of India initiative for reduction of AT&C losses through automated processes.

Distribution transformer metering and automated meter reading are the primary steps towards reduction of AT&C losses, and use of GPRS technology is the latest advancement in the Metering domain.

Omne Agate is an established market leader in the automated meter reading (AMR) space with an existing installation base of more than 35000 AMR units, and another 18000 units under implementation across various utilities in India. The company's innovative and cost-effective solutions have helped many utilities improve power quality, reduce losses and move towards Clean Development Mechanism/ Carbon Credit.

Commenting on the win, Mr. K R Ilanghovan, Managing Director, Omne Agate Systems, said, "Over the last decade, we have built a strong customer base among electricity boards across the country and have emerged as a market leader in the AMR space."

"GPRS-enabled metering is a revolution in the AMR space and a timely technology solution to address India's power deficit issue. We are proud to be pioneers in the building and implementation of this technology. In the forthcoming financial year, we will look at growing our footprint in the private sector," he added.

The project with UHBVN involves supply, erection, installation and commissioning of LT/CT Electronic Trivector Meters, LT/CT's and GPRS Modem/Router for Distribution Transformer Metering in Urban and Rural areas under UHBVN. The project is expected to be completed in nine months. (editor@thesynergyonline.com) .