The Association of Power Producers (APP) asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for special relaxation for the power sector in its guidelines on when insolvency proceedings would be triggered. The industry body said the stress in the sector is largely due to irregularity in payment from discoms, regulatory delays, and coal supply constraints, which are beyond the control of power firms. In a letter written to RB...

LUCKNOW: The state government has decided to hand over the powerdistribution network of five cities, Lucknow, Varanasi, Meerut, Gorakhpur and Moradabad, to private companies. The UP Power Corporation Limited(UPPCL), which got the proposal approved by state cabinet on Friday, will now invite bids from private companies.  UP energy minister Shrikant Sharma said that private companies will be responsib...

Last month, six energy producing companies won rights to set up wind power projects in Gujarat and sell power to the State’s utility firm. In the auctions, where those who offer to sell electricity at the least prices are the winners, four companies quoted ?2.44 a unit of electricity, and two others quoted a paisa more. Similarly, in the previous auctions, several wind and solar companies have come forward t...

LUCKNOW: Power employees across the state boycotted work for two hours and held statewide protest meetings on Monday to oppose the state cabinet’s decision to hand over electricity distribution in five cities to private franchisees. The state cabinet last week gave its nod for a proposal seeking introduction of distribution franchisee system in Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut and Moradabad, evoking a sh...

“India is moving from power shortage to power surplus, network failure to the exporter. We have also moved towards ‘One Nation, One Grid’.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed regarding his achievements with power sector. There are some credible achievements that NDA government has racked up, and there are no doubts about that. Some of them are electrification of villages, gettin...

Mallapur The government has declared 2019 as the target date for every Indian household to get electricity. But a Factchecker analysis reveals that at current rates of electrification, it will take more than four years to provide power to all rural households alone. Representational image. AFP To meet its 2019 target, the government will need to electrify more than 2.7 million households ...

BENGALURU: In a reversal of the upbeat sentiment prevailing in solar energylast year, two recent solar auctions – one in Maharashtra and the other in Karnataka – have failed to attract enough bidders, leading to their repeated postponement. Though India added a record 7,295 MW in 2017-18 until February end, and bid out another 10,500 MW through the year, Maharashtra&r...

In April 2013, Praful Patel, then Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, came out with a 'Vision 2022 for the Indian Electrical Equipment (EE) industry', targeting production worth $100 billion by 2022. The 10-year plan also estimated that the domestic demand for power generation . ...

Free power accounted for 95-99 per cent of the state government’s total subsidy bill in the past five years (2012-17). In a report, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has called for a review of the decision to continue with power subsidy to farmers.   As per the report, subsidies constituted 13 to 16 per cent of the total committed expenditure on the revenue account.   As p...

  Power distribution companies (discoms), UHBVN and DHBVN incurred avoidable expenditure of Rs 127.23 crore on purchase of short term non-solar renewable power when the electricity was in surplus, however, it had the option of purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates instead.   The wasteful expenditure has been red-flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report for year ending M...