Meeting India’s electricity needs

Till the central grid becomes reliable, a solar- and wind-powered microgrid is the way to light up remote areas One often comes across news about variable renewable energy sources like solar photovoltaic and wind having reached ‘grid parity’. What is the concept of grid parity? Electricity grid is a very complex system. It involves long-distance transmission of electricity at high voltage, step-up and ...

Power staff snap defaulter govt depts’ connections

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA) staff on Saturday disconnected electricity supply of a number of government departments and guest houses, including the VVIP guest house here, for non-payment of electricity dues. The move is aimed at mounting pressure on the state government to roll back its decision of handing over power distribution in five cities, Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meeru...

Conventional and Non-conventional Power: Purposeful Coexistence

Over the past few years, the Indian power sector has witnessed some transformational changes that are set to alter the very structure of the power industry in the times to come. The advent of commercially viable yet affordable power tariffs through renewable technologies - both wind and solar, is perhaps the most disruptive change in the Indian energy scenario. While the tariffs for power based on fossil fuels and...

Shutting down of Ropar, Bathinda units is violation of CEA norms: Power engineers

PATIALA: The power engineers have accused the Punjab government of closing the Bathinda thermal plant and two units of Ropar thermal plant in violation of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) norms. The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) released its white paper on closure of the thermal plants. “The decision of Punjab government to shut down Bhatinda power plant and two units of Ropar thermal p...

Power sector workers to hold rally in Delhi

RUPNAGAR : Country’s power sector employees will hold a rally at Delhi on April 3 against the proposed Electricity (Amendment ) Bill, 2014. The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) spokesman VK Gupta said before taking up the bill for discussion in the Parliament, the entire population must be given access to electricity, for which ministry of power had set December 2019 as the target. “Also, a...

Power men to observe one day ‘work boycott’ today

LUCKNOW: The state’s power employees will observe one-day ‘work boycott’ on Tuesday in response to a call given by the Vidyut Karmchaari Sanyukt Parishad, to protest government’s decision to hand over electricity distribution of five cities to private players. LUCKNOW: Power consumers are willing to take small hikes in tariff positively if they receive quality service and uninterrupted supply,...

Power employees to hold rally in Delhi

They said the suggestions made by them and accepted by former Power Minister have not yet been incorporated in the Bill. VK Gupta, a spokesperson of the All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), said, “Two necessary conditions need to be achieved before taking up the Bill for discussion in Parliament. Firstly, 100 per cent population must be given access to electricity. Secondly, all power utilities mu...

Power men across UP strike work against government's privatization bid

Lucknow: Power employees across Uttar Pradesh struck work on Tuesday to protest against the state government's decision to privatize electricity in Varanasi, Lucknow, Meerut, Gorakhpur and Moradabad. Unions of the power employees also warned the state government that after this token one-day strike, they will be forced to go for a longer agitation in case there was no immediate roll back on...

Power outages in lean March worry farmers

March means more power pangs in paddy season.   While insiders claim that power cuts were being imposed during peak hours in the evening and non-peak morning hours, power officials denied the charge.   According to the official records, power cuts to the tune of 200 MW were imposed during evening peak hours in the last three days. Even during non-peak morning hours, power cuts between 300 and 40...

Helpless power sector to make India’s summer stressful

With coal shortage at power stations, an early peak in demand, and the discoms struggling to keep electricity prices in check, India is poised to experience a dark summer in 2018.  While power project developers are already struggling for timely payments from the distribution companies, severe coal shortage is going to make this summer worse for the consumers. Government controlled distribution utilities, whi...