The financial health of Indian Discoms has been a cause of concern not only for the power sector, but also for the government. Cross-subsidising of power, open access through power exchange, surplus power contracts for certain Discoms and high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses over the years have weighed on the bottom line of Discoms, while having a cascading effect on the entire sector and consume...

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that it is not "mandatory" to appoint a high court judge as the chairperson of State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC), which determines power tariff, in the states. The path-breaking verdict put to rest the vexatious question that had come to light due to conflicting judgements of Gujarat and the Madras high courts on the interp...

Punjab News Express/Vinod Gupta CHANDIGARH: Punjab Government today appointed Directors in Punjab State power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation limited (PSTCL) . Jatinder Kumar Goyal has been appointed Director Finance in PSPCL in place of S C Arora. He has been appointed for a period for a period of two years.It may be mentioned that Goyal is working as Director Finance i...

WITH SUMMER just setting in, an acute coal shortage has led Maharashtra to stare at possible power shortage. Having maintained that Maharashtra is a power-surplus state, officials of power distribution companies now concede that a repeat of last year’s loadshedding looms large, as demand grows alongside soaring temperatures. As of Sunday, at least three of the state’s 12 thermal power stations reported...

New Delhi: The powerministry’s latest scheme for procurement of power from 2,500 Megawatt (Mw) of coal-based capacity for three years from operational coal-based projects without long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) provides only a partial relief to generators, according to ratings agency ICRA. “This is a partial relief for the Independent Power Producers (IPP) segment given t...

The banking sector’s overall non-performing assets (NPAs) are already staggeringly high at Rs 8.40 lakh crore, as of the end of December 2017. The threat has become real after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently issued revised guidelines for early detection and resolution of stressed assets, leaving lenders with little leeway in matters of restructuring of defaulted loans. India’s largest public s...

Kolkata: The government has assured Coal India union leaders that the company would remain dominant even after private commercial mining begins, but workers have decided to go ahead with the April 16 strike. “We had a round of talks with the unions and told them that Coal India will remain a dominant public sector player in the Indian coal scene and it would also offer...

Electricity Act tweaks to protect rights of consumers NEW DELHI, APRIL 8 Power utilities may soon be paying for unannounced power cuts. The Ministry of Power proposes to amend the Electricity Act and come up with a fresh tariff policy to ensure that consumers are not taken for a ride. Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power RK Singh, told BusinessLine that until now the Electricity Act has...

New Delhi: Coal shortage is still affecting the efficacy or capacity utilisation (Plant Load Factor) of independent power projects in the country, which may lead to a spike in spot prices of electricity on exchanges this summer, according to experts. "Earlier last year, the shortage of coal prices resulted in surge in spot power prices at energy exchanges to as high Rs 11 per unit and the ...

With a total installed capacity of 12.3 gigawatts (GW), as of March 2018, Karnataka has emerged as the leading state for renewable energy in India this year. According to a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), the state generates 27% of its power from renewable energy. In fact, The Hindu reports that the state has added 5 Gigawatts in 2017-2018 alone...