The non-payment of subsidy has created serious financial trouble for PSPCL and the financial constraints have already been reflected in the shortage of essential materials, delayed payments to suppliers and contractors, and thus hindering the development works. This has been stated by the power engineers association to the state government as well as the Chairman cum Managing Director Punjab...

With polls round the corner, the Punjab government has announced a bonanza for the power consumers at the cost of Powercom. There is nothing wrong with the various power-related welfare schemes announced by the government for the consumers but it must ensure the timely payment to save PSPCL, despite its commitment for bearing the expenditure, said V K Gupta spokesperson All India Power Engineers Federation. Practi...

According to former Coal India chairman Partha Sarathi Bhattacharyya, coal will have to stay and initially will have to actually increase in quantity and not in shareNEW DELHI: Given India's dependence on coal for 70 per cent of the power sector's need, the 50 per cent non-fossil fuel sourcing by 2030 itself will be quite challenging and coal will continue to feed the growing energy need of India for the next...

  The power sector in India is at an inflection point. Three developments are triggering a shift across the power chain, generation and distribution in particular, and are in the process deepening existing faultlines, and exacerbating the distress. The first is a change in the way the Centre approaches the distribution segment. Till recently, it had preferred to incentivise states, nud...

  Announcing the termination of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the GVK-owned 540 MW thermal power plant at Goindwal Sahib, Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi said that PPAs with other two thermal plants in the state will also be reworked. “In the session of the Vidhan Sabha on November 8, the House will hold discussions on the matter, take decision and also bring l...

Appellate tribunal stays Punjab’s PPA termination notices to four power plants The PSERC had added that the PSPCL should buy power at not more than ?3 per unit, including fixed and variable cost; the cost from these four plants is much higher Patiala The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) has stayed the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) termination notices that the Punjab State Power Corporation...

India faced 1.2% power deficit till October, with the shortfall expected to be normalized by the end of the year, the Union power ministry said on Monday. “India had a massive power deficit of -16.6% in 2007-08. In 2011-12, it was -10.6%. Through the multipronged, comprehensive, and aggressive interventions of the government, this deficit is near about wiped out, consistently over the last three years: -.4% ...

Sources said that Channi was working on finding a middle path so that the PPAs are not terminated but the state gets cheaper power supply from them. The Punjab government is preparing to bring a legislation in Vidhan Sabha session to re-determine state’s purchase price for two private power plants — Nabha Power Limited (NPL) and Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL). With the legislation, the governmen...

  The introduction of forward contracts will benefit distribution companies and industrial consumers, although futures and other financial derivatives need to be approached with caution Ann Josey and Shantanu Dixit The Supreme Court in October finally permitted power exchanges regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to offer monthly, seasonal or even ann...

  Balancing the grid on an hour-to-hour basis is done through a detailed set of technical and commercial rules. Consider the data available. India’s energy-demand is expected to grow 35 -50% by 2030. We have 388 GW of installed capacity, of which 100 GW is renewable energy (and 50 GW is large hydro, not considered “green”). By 2030, we want to increase non-fossil-fuel genera...